ECU Pounds Methodist

GREENVILLE, N.C. - Maurice Kemp scored 21 points to lead East Carolina past Methodist University 87-51 in Minges Coliseum on Tuesday night.

Kemp had eleven at intermission as the Pirates led by 11 points, 36-24 against the smaller Monarchs.

The Pirates also got solid play from Robert Sampson who scored 13 points and hauled down 10 rebounds but it wasn't the best shooting night for ECU as they went 4 for 26 from the arc and only hit 11 of 17 from the charity stripe. Shamarr Bowden only scored two points but only shot four times and he dished out nine assists in 26 minutes.

Bryan Hockaday led Methodist with 15 points and ten boards in 26 minutes of play. Joey Horne heated up in the second half for the Monarchs where he scored seven of his nine points.

All told the Pirates had 60 points in the paint, 22 off of turnovers, 19 second chance points and ECU scored 20 points in transition. The bench got involved to the tune of 35 points.

Jeff Lebo wasn't particularly happy with the performance on Tuesday night and talked about it in the postgame.

"It was a win, it was an ugly offensive performance shooting the basketball. Shooting as poorly as we did, it was lucky we did a good job of rebounding," said Lebo, "We weren't fluid offensively, but we managed to play pretty good defense. We'll have to play better in the next ones or obviously we'll be in trouble. If we go 4 of 26 from the arc against good teams and we'll lose by double-figures."

The Pirates were again without the services of starting point guard Miguel Paul who sat out the second of a two-game team rules infraction suspension.

ECU held Methodist to 31 percent from the floor and 5 of 17 from the arc while shooting at nearly a 56 percent clip in the second half to end up at 48.6 for the game.

East Carolina(2-0) returns to the hardwood this Friday when the Spartans of UNC-Greensboro visit Minges Coliseum for a 7pm tipoff.

Catch PI-TV's Chanellos Pizza PI Postgame from Minges Coliseum here on PirateIllustrated.com.