East Carolina University
1-1
UNC Asheville
1-1
East Carolina Falls To UNC Asheville By Four
November 16, 2014 | Men's Basketball
From wire and staff reports
GREENVILLE, N.C. --- The patented comeback that the Pirates have become known for under coach Jeff Lebo came up four points shy Sunday afternoon as Andrew Rowsey scored 28 points and UNC Asheville posted an 83-79 victory over East Carolina.
Rowsey was only 5 of 14 from the floor but made 15 of 16 free throws for the Bulldogs (1-1), who were 28 of 34 from the line. Kem Ubaru added 17 points and Corey Littlejohn 10.
Caleb White led the Pirates (1-1) with 24 points, tying his career-high. Lance Tejada added 14 points, B.J. Tyson 12, Terry Whisnant 11 and Marshall Guilmette 10.
"Congratulations to UNC Asheville. I thought they played well and they had the best player on the floor, no doubt about it in [Andrew] Rowsey," ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo said. "I thought we battled to the end, extended the game very well and had chances at the end if we could've a stop or two. If hey had missed a foul shot or two we maybe would have maybe had a different outcome. Give them credit they were better than us tonight."
The Pirates trailed by 16, 58-42, with 10:16 to play, but then went on a 12-2 run to cut their deficit to six with more than 7:30 remaining. The run started after Tyson scooped up the loose ball off a missed free throw dunked it over a Bulldog defender. Tejada followed with five straight points before Guilmette capped off the run with the final three points.
Asheville pushed its lead back to 10 points with 2:09 and East Carolina never got closer than four the remainder of the game despite getting five points off three turnovers in the final two minutes. The Bulldogs made 10 of 12 free throws in the closing minutes.
White's 3-pointer with 29 seconds left got the Pirates within four points, 78-74, with 29 seconds left. Rowsey made two free throws and Kevin Vannatta one for Asheville to lead 81-74 before White hit another 3-pointer with 12 seconds left. Littlejohn put in to more free throws for the Bulldogs with six seconds left to secure the win.
"Rebounding is going to be an issue for us all year," Lebo said. "Our best offensive team is our poorest rebounding team, so when we got down we had to put the best offensive guys out there and it's not a terribly good rebounding team because we're so small."
The Bulldogs dominated the glass, 43-27, and scored 17 points off 13 offensive rebounds while limiting the Pirates to just five offensive boards. The Bulldogs' Jaleel Roberts had six offensive rebounds himself.
ECU scored the game's first six points and held a 9-8 lead, but after the Bulldogs took a 14-13 advantage they never gave it away as Rowsey scored 15 points in first half to lead Asheville to a 38-28 halftime lead.
The Pirates return to action Thursday, Nov. 20, against Virginia University of Lynchburg. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
