GREENVILLE — East Carolina downed South Carolina-Upstate, 83-70, in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum on Monday night as Texas-El Paso transfer Kaseem Watson had a game-high 17 points with seven rebounds.

The Pirates won their 27th straight season opener as former Kent State standout Cian Medley had a double-double with 14 points and 11 assists.

Two more experienced newcomers, Brycen Blaine (Charleston Southern) and Wilson native Trevor Best (Arizona State) added 14 points apiece.

Each team had 31 rebounds.

“We’ve got to rebound better,” said fifth-year ECU coach Mike Schwartz on the Pirate radio network. “They had seven offensive rebounds at the half. We did better in the second half. They had 10 for the game.”

ECU led 44-32 at the break with nine for 15 shooting from beyond the arc (60 percent) and fewer turnovers with five compared to 11 for the Spartans.

The Pirates finished 12 of 25 from long distance, 48 percent, which was slightly better than their overall field goal accuracy (27 for 57, 47 percent).

ECU concluded with an 11-20 lead in turnovers.

The Spartans got 16 points from Jalyn Patterson, 15 from Ries Naugle and 12 from Miles Webb, who had a game-high 10 rebounds.

USC-Upstate jumped ahead 4-0 and had its last lead at 18-16. Best hit a jumper in the paint to tie the score at 18 with 12:02 left in the half. Max Klitschko hit a free throw to put ECU ahead to stay at 19-18.

The largest lead for the Pirates was 80-59 with 2:52 left to play.

“Getting better after a win is a bonus,” Schwartz said.

ECU hosts UNC-Wilmington (1-0) on Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPN+).