ECU Vaults into Finals of CIT

GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina advanced to the finals of the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Invitational Tournament with a 81-58 victory over Evansville in Minges Coliseum.

Senior forward Maurice Kemp tossed in 20 points including several acrobatic shots and dunks. Many of those coming off of passes from fellow senior, Miguel Paul who scored 19 points and had 11 assists in his final game in Greenville. That helped Paul pass Brock Young on the ECU all-time single season assist list with 228.

It was the Pirates' 22nd win of the season and that too is an East Carolina record.

Kemp finished with 12 rebounds in his last home outing as a Pirate. Ty Armstrong scored 17 and Rob Sampson scored 11 points and hauled down 13 rebounds in the win.

But much of the story was the job that Paris Roberts-Campbell did on Colt Ryan who came in averaging 20 points per game and was limited to just 12 points on 3 of 10 shooting and 0 for 4 from three-point range.

"We were great tonight and they were not their best," said ECU head coach Jeff Lebo, "That was the best we've played all year. We had a lot of energy, Paris Roberts-Campbell was terrific and he did a good job of stopping (Colt)Ryan."

Ryan did manage to hit all six of his free throw attempts. Egidijus Mockevicius tossed in 9 points and had 13 boards in the loss.

"I told them that I wanted them to have as much fun playing the game as you've ever had. We scored baskets in transition, Ty in the second half was outstanding. Sampson was terrific and Kemp was dialed in."

ECU(22-12) jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead on two Paul scores and free throws from Ty Armstrong and Paris Roberts-Campbell.

A dunk from Robert Sampson and three straight buckets from Mo Kemp found ECU up 16-8 as the Purple Aces started out a cold 4 for 17 from the field. A pair of Paul three-pointers pushed the Pirate lead to 13 at 23-10 midway through the first half.

Adam Wing connected on a pair of buckets to cut the ECU lead ten but Evansville only hit 1 of 6 from the arc in the first 14 minutes of the contest. Akeem Richmond's three point bomb and a Sampson dunk gave ECU a 40-26 cushion at intermission.

ECU(22-12) jumped out to a quick 8-2 lead on two Paul scores and free throws from Ty Armstrong and Paris Roberts-Campbell.

Kemp's circus shot in the lane, his subsequent drive, a Richmond trey and an ali oops from Paul to Kemp and Sampson gave the Pirates a 15 point lead with 13 minutes to play. Neither of the dunks were of the garden variety and both worthy of highlight recognition.

Ryan did his damage in the second half, scoring on three separate occasions, mostly from the charity stripe, but he was limited by Roberts-Campbell's swarming defense. Egidijus Mockevicius tossed in 9 points and had 13 boards in the loss.

Evansville(21-15) hit only 21 of 66 shot attempts for 31.8 percent and only 1 of 15 from the arc. ECU connected on 55 percent of their 56 shot attempts and were 6 for 19 from three-point range. Akeem Richmond was limited to just 2 of 9 from the arc.

The Pirates got 48 points in the lane and 20 points off turnovers in a game that Evansville never led.

Be sure to catch PI-TV Postgame presented by Ironwood Golf & Country Club, Greenville's Premier Golf Community. The Pirates will travel to Weber State for the finals of the CIT next Tuesday night. The game will be televised on CBS College Sports at 8pm.