East Carolina University
Appalachian State
ECU Turns Back Appalachian State
November 20, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Nov. 20, 2012
Box Score | Quotes | Photo Gallery 
| 
Game Highlights and Interviews
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
GREENVILLE, N.C. --- Maurice Kemp scored 21 points and Robert Sampson pulled down a career-high 18 rebounds in East Carolina's 82-72 win over Appalachian State on Tuesday night.
Sampson, who entered the game averaging 6.7 points and seven rebounds, also added 17 points. Kemp, who scored nine of his points from the free-throw line, grabbed 11 rebounds for the Pirates. Miguel Paul added 14 points and handed out a game-high six assist.
The victory gave the Pirates' their fourth consecutive win to start the season for the first time since the 2002-03 season in which they opened the year with seven straight triumphs.
Appalachian State (1-3) scored the game's first four points and led 6-2 after Nathan Healy hit a jumper. But East Carolina used a 14-4 run to go ahead 16-10 with 14:29 left in the first half.
Appalachian State cut the deficit to 23-22 later in the half but would not get any closer as East Carolina took a 38-33 advantage into halftime and never led by less than two in the second half.
After the Mountaineers pulled within one, ECU went on an 8-2 spurt to push itself out to its largest lead of the half, seven, with 2:56 to play.
Appalachian State pulled within a basket of East Carolina twice in the second half, but each time the Pirates answered with a bucket of their own. The Mountaineers got within 40-38, but Ty Armstrong scored four straight points to extend the lead.
The Mountaineers cut the ECU back to two, 55-53, with 9:36 to play. Paul then raced down the floor to put the Pirates back ahead by four.
ECU then converted three consecutive 3-point plays, two by Kemp and one by Paul, to take its first double digit lead of the game, 68-58, with 6:45 to play.
However, Appalachian State had one final run left in it and outscored ECU 11-4 over the next six minutes to get back within three, 72-69, with 3:17 to play. The Pirates then scored seven unanswered, including the first five of the run by Sampson to push the lead back to back to 10 with 50 seconds to play.
Jay Canty had 25 points and Healy added 24 points and 10 rebounds for Appalachian State.
