Gameday Central: East Carolina vs. Mount Olive
December 07, 2013 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 7, 2013
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GREENVILLE, N.C. --- After suffering a two-point loss to rival UNC Wilmington, the Pirates got back on the winning track Tuesday night with a hard-fought win over Division II Fayetteville State. ECU will close out its slate of Division II games Sunday against Mount Olive.
The Trojans will be playing their second games in as many days after suffering a 71-62 loss to USC Aiken Saturday afternoon. Dominique Reed, who ranks second on the team in scoring with 12.5 ppg, led Mount Olive with 18 points. Dontrell Brite, the team's leading scorer (13.0 ppg), finished with 16 points, going 8-of-12 from the field, but just 2-of-7 at the free throw line.
Mount Olive went 0-for-15 from three-point range and 12-for-25 from the free throw line.
ECU received a record-setting performance from Akeem Richmond its last game as he buried a school record 10 3-pointers en route to a 37-point performance. He connected on 10-of-17 shots behind the arc with a jumper in the lane and five throws.
Richmond alone has more 3-pointers this season, 41, than the entire Trojan team, 35.
The Pirates have been playing with a small lineup all season and with 6-foot-10 center Marshall Guilmette lost for the season, ECU will rely more heavily on its guard laden roster.
Richmond, a 6-foot senior from Sanford, leads the team in scoring with 18.2 ppg followed by 6-4 junior Paris Roberts-Campbell at 15.2 and 6-7 freshman Caleb White with 11.2 ppg with three additional players averaging 7.6 or more points per game.
Among those three are the only two remaining listed forwards (White is listed a combo forward/guard) on the roster, 6-7 freshman Brandan Stith and 6-9 sophomore Michael Zangari. The two are combining for an average of 15.8 points and 16.0 rebounds per contest.
Stith is one of the top rebounders in the country, averaging 10.4 rebounds per game which ranks among the nation's top-20 players.
Despite having an undersized roster, ECU is out-rebounding its opponents by an average of 7.5 per game which ranks fourth in Conference USA.
The Pirates have won 20 straight against non-Division I opponents are a perfect 14-0 under Coach Jeff Lebo.
