Gameday Central: East Carolina vs. Fayetteville State
December 03, 2013 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 3, 2013
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GAMEDAY PREVIEW
East Carolina will return to the court just over 48 hours after Sunday's gut-wrenching loss to UNC Wilmington when it hosts Fayetteville State. It is just the second meeting between the two schools, whose campuses are a mere two hours apart.
The Pirates (6-2) have won 19 of their last 24 home games and will look to start a new homecourt winning streak after the Seahawks ended it at eight. It is the second game of an ECU five-game homestand. The Pirates haven't lost consecutive non-conference home games since 2011 when they fell to Charlotte and UMass.
The loss came following a 6-1 start to the season and back-to-back neutral site wins over McNeese State and UNC Asheville as part of the NIT Season Tip-Off.
Without the services of 6-foot-10 sophomore Marshall Guilmette, who missed his third consecutive game while battling knee tendinitis, UNCW used it size advantage to outscore ECU 48-32 in the paint and 19-7 on offensive put backs. Six-foot-9 Cedrick Williams and 6-foot-8 Shane Reybold combined for 32 points and 16 boards against the undersized Pirates, who were held to under 70 points for the first time this season.
While size isn't expected to be factor in today's matchup, speed and quickness are. Both teams average more than 80 points per game, but ECU is holding its opponents to 67.4 ppg compared to Fayetteville State (4-3), which is allowing 81.3.
Senior Akeem Richmond (15.9 ppg) and junior Paris Roberts-Campbell (15.8 ppg) lead the Pirates' balanced offensive attack, that feature six players averaging at least 7.8 points per game. Freshman Caleb White, who started the last four games in place of the injured Guilmette, is third on the team in scoring (10.4 ppg) and its field goal percentage (.557) and 3-point shooting percentage (.500) leader.
Freshman Brandan Stith has already posted four double-digit rebounding games this season and currently ranks third in Conference USA with 9.9 rebounds per game.
Sophomore Michael Zangari is second on the team with 5.4 boards a night, while Roberts-Campbell and junior guard Antonio Robinson each averaging four per contest. Five players average double figures for Fayetteville State, which average 85.1 points per game. The Broncos should be well-rested having not played since defeating Virginia University of Lynchburg, 75-64, on Nov. 26.
Junior Torian Showers led four Broncos in double figures with 21 points followed by Travis Marcus with 13, while Joshua Dawson and Tyrrel Tate added 12 apiece. Tate is the Broncos' leading scorer (18.4 ppg) with Dawson, Showers and Timothy Haggie also averaging double figures.
"Fayetteville State is talented, athletic," ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo said. "They may be better than a couple of Division I teams that we've played already."
The only previous meeting between the instate foes came during Lebo's first season with the Pirates, resulting in a 91-70 ECU win.
