Pinkney Guides Pirates To 38-21 Win Over SMU

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GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) - James Pinkney spent most of the week stewing about his play in East Carolina's loss to Tulsa last week. He more than made up for it Saturday.

The senior threw for a career-high 391 yards with two touchdowns and ran for a score to lead the Pirates past SMU 38-21, giving the program some momentum heading into a difficult stretch of games to close the regular season.

Aundrae Allison finished with a career-best 13 catches for 138 yards and a TD in his return from an ankle injury that sidelined him for the past two games, helping the Pirates (3-4, 2-2 Conference USA) close a five-game homestand with three wins. Brandon Simmons also ran for two touchdowns while Davon Drew had a TD catch for East Carolina.

It was a good way for East Carolina to rebound from last week's 31-10 loss to the Golden Hurricane, a performance that second-year coach Skip Holtz called the team's worst of the year. Pinkney was particularly irked after completing 13 of 27 passes for 92 yards in that game.

"I didn't want to leave the house the whole week," Pinkney said. "To come out like that in that type of atmosphere, it was just embarrassing to us all."

Pinkney rebounded in a big way against the Mustangs (4-4, 2-2), completing 31 of 40 passes to set a career high in completions while finishing with the third-highest single-game passing yardage in school history.

Of course, much of the credit had to go to having his big-play receiving threat back in the lineup.

Allison had been out since injuring his ankle against West Virginia on Sept. 23, but didn't need long to make his mark against SMU. And Allison's presence opened up things for his teammates, including wideout Steven Rogers (three catches, 90 yards), receiver Phillip Henry (four catches, 45 yards) and Drew, a tight end who had four catches for 49 yards.

Running back Chris Johnson also had five catches for 45 yards.

"Aundrae's pretty explosive," Holtz said. "And with Aundrae's explosiveness, it changes the way you have to defend us because you have to know that he's on the field."

Allison didn't seem surprised by his immediate impact, which comes just as the Pirates prepare to play four of their last five games on the road.

"I knew coming out here in front of the 'Pirate Nation,' the adrenaline would help me get through the rest of the game," he said. "It's just a little bit of aching, but it's nothing I can't deal with."

East Carolina scored touchdowns on its first two drives for a 14-0 lead, then answered a tying score from SMU with a long drive just before halftime that put the Pirates ahead to stay at 21-14 on Simmons' second 1-yard scoring run.

The Pirates pushed the lead to 31-14 on Pinkney's 10-yard keeper midway through the fourth, then got a 30-yard Pinkney-to-Allison touchdown to seal it.

Throwing the ball was the only way the Pirates seemed able to move it. East Carolina finished with 36 yards rushing on 29 attempts against the league's stingiest run defense.

"They knew they couldn't run the ball against us," SMU coach Phil Bennett said. "But (Pinkney) made some beautiful throws. We got a couple of good hits on him in the first half, but he still made perfect throws."

Justin Willis threw three touchdown passes, two to Emmanuel Sanders, for the Mustangs. But SMU didn't help itself with several mistakes, including an illegal blocking penalty that negated a 67-yard punt return for a score by Blake Warren. Thomas Morstead also missed a 45-yard field goal in the third quarter that would have cut the deficit to seven points with 4:27 left in the third.

SMU also was stopped on a fourth-and-2 from East Carolina's 27-yard line late in the third quarter.

"I'll give the defense some credit," said Willis, who completed 22 of 33 passes for 224 yards. "Their secondary did a good job of covering our receivers."