Jamal McMurray led five players in double figures with 20 points to go along with 16 from Ben Emelogu in SMU’s 77-58 over ECU Wednesday night in Minges Coliseum.
The Pirates, who were led by 21 points from Isaac Fleming, seemed distracted and out of whack all night. B.J. Tyson added 14 points but AAC rookie of the week Shawn Williams went just 1 for 11 from the floor with a pair of free throws for just five points. ECU hit just 34 percent from the floor including just 8 of 29 from the acc and yielded 19 points to SMU on 13 turnovers.
Despite 15 Mustang turnovers, ECU could never get it going offensively and they gave up 30 points in the paint which is a recipe for disaster.
“Obviously disappointed tonight with this game. Our team was distracted. As a coach you may have nights like this and you hope to find a way to win ugly but we were unable to do that,” Michael Perry said, “We really struggled in the first half. We dug a hole and came out flat and distracted.”
“As a coach you scratch your head sometimes and you try to figure out how something like this happens particularly with out team because we’ve been playing pretty good basketball of late and we didn’t see this coming.”
The Mustangs jumped out to a quick 11-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game before ECU(10-16) ever got on the scoreboard on a basket from Dimitri Spasojevic.
Shawn Williams’ first three-pointer of the game helped ECU close to within six at 12-6. But four SMU baskets later, the Mustangs found themselves up 24-6 with just over ten minutes to go in the half.
The Mustang lead continued to grow at the five minute mark on baskets from Ben Emelogu and Akoy Agau’s who scored in the paint to make it 32-13. Two three-pointers from Elijah Landrum and another from William Douglass gave SMU a 41-23 lead at intermission.
Landrum and Isaac Fleming led their respective teams with nine points at halftime. The Mustangs hit just over 52 percent from the floor and 63 percent from the arc in the first twenty minutes compared to 28 percent shooting for the Pirates in both catagories. Houston scored ten points off of six ECU first half turnovers.
A pair of early second half technical fouls, one on Isaac Fleming and another on SMU’s Akoy Agau, was soon followed by a pair of Kentrell Barkley technical fouls on one play that quickly got him ejected.
Suddenly what was slowly becoming a more competitive game turned into a 59-32 Mustang blowout at the 11:45 mark in the second half. SMU(16-12) never looked back from there.
