Pirates Win Opener

GREENVILLE, N.C. - Maurice Kemp tossed in 19 points to lead East Carolina(1-0) past visiting Washington & Lee(0-1) 72-50 in the home opener for the Pirates.

East Carolina(1-0) played without the services of point guard Miguel Paul who was suspended for two games for a violation of team rules.

Corvonn Gaines replaced Paul at the point for ECU who went on a 23-16 run to take a 35-22 lead at intermission.

Kemp scored 15 of his 19 points in the first stanza where the Pirates held the Generals to 0 for 6 shooting from the arc. Washington & Lee ended up hitting three treys in the second half.

Point guard Kevin Gill led the Generals with 12 points while post player J.D. Ey chipped in with 10 and 10 rebounds in a losing cause.

"I thought defensively we were really good, we understood our game plan that the way they could beat us was from three and we took that away from them. We did some nice things but we missed a lot of layups and open looks, we shot 44 percent... We did a lot better in the second half," said ECU head coach Jeff Lebo who said he was pretty pleased with the performance of his young players.

This contest ate into East Carolina's depth a little. Michael Zangari went out with an ankle injury, Robert Sampson aggravated a hamstring and Peter Torlak took an elbow to the face that required stitches.

ECU forced 16 turnovers on the Generals while only having 11 of their own. 50 percent shooting from the floor in the second half lifted ECU's percentage to 44 percent from the floor and 33 percent from the arc. The Pirates were only 14 of 22 from the charity stripe while Washington & Lee connected on 9 of 11. ECU limited the Generals to 33 percent shooting for the night.

Catch Chanello's Pizza PI Postgame with postgame interviews with Coach Lebo as well as postgame comments from Maurice Kemp and Akeem Richmond.