East Carolina University
Middle Tennessee State
East Carolina Falls to Middle Tennessee, 84-67
January 30, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 30, 2014
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 67East Carolina |
Murfreesboro, Tenn. ? Attendance: 4,411 |  84 Middle Tennessee |
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Shawn Jones scored 22 points and gathered 11 rebounds as Middle Tennessee took down East Carolina 84-67 on Thursday night.
Middle Tennessee (14-7, 4-2 Conference USA) shot 52 percent and hit 20 of 29 free throws. Tweety Knight had 14 points and Kerry Hammonds II added 13 points and six assists.
A 13-0 run propelled MTSU to a 27-10 lead with 7:44 left in the first half as the Pirates went more than seven minutes without a field goal. Jaqawn Raymond buried a trey just before the halftime buzzer and Middle Tennessee took a 41-22 lead to the break.
East Carolina chipped the lead down to 13 with 6:44 left on Akeem Richmond's 3-pointer, but MTSU scored the next seven points to push the lead back to 20.
The Pirates, who have struggled to score recently, poured in 45 second half points; their most in any half of a C-USA game this year and most since scoring 55 second hlaf points against Georgia State.
ECU shot 50 percent after halftime, but the Blue Raiders shot 56 percent during the final 20 minutes.
Caleb White led East Carolina (11-10, 0-6) with 18 points, while Paris Roberts-Campbell added 13. Richmond and Prince Williams each scored 12 and Michael Zangari scored 10 before fouling out.
Richmond sank four 3s to become the fifth player in school history to make over 200 3-pointers in his career. He currently ranks fourth with 203, 26 shy of Lester Lyons' record of 229.
