East Carolina University
UTSA
East Carolina Outpaces UTSA, 81-71
February 08, 2014 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 08, 2014
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 81East Carolina |
 Highlights and Interviews | Box Score | Notes | Quotes Greenville, N.C. ? Attendance: 5,188 |  71 UTSA |
From staff and wire reports
GREENVILLE, N.C. - Akeem Richmond scored 31 points, including 15-of-15 free throws, to lead East Carolina to an 81-71 victory over UTA on Saturday to earn its first Conference USA home win of the season.
Caleb White added 18 for the Pirates, who hadn't won at home since Dec. 19. Michael Zangari also netted double figures with 11 points, while Prince Williams added 10 off the bench.
"It was a really good win for us, obviously to win at home, ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo said. "We haven't won at home in a while, so it was nice to get that. Akeem and Caleb were terrific offensively."
Both teams were sloppy out of the gates with East Carolina (13-11, 2-7 Conference USA) starting 5-of-19 from the field and UTSA (7-15, 3-6) 5-of-17. The Roadrunners held the Pirates to just 11 points in the first 12:12 and led 14-11 at the under-8 media timeout (7:48).
Following the timeout, ECU went on a 15-2 run to take a 26-16 lead as five different players scored as part of the spurt.
The Pirates led UTSA 33-25 at the break and increased the lead to 18 points on a fast break dunk down the lane by Williams over Devon Agusi after a steal by Richmond. The lead ballooned to 20, 58-38, with 10:35 to play.
UTSA outscored the Pirates 24-9 over the next 7:44 to cut the lead to five, 67-62, with 2:41 left. The Roadrunners used a fouling effort to close out, but the Pirates made all 14 free throw attempts down the stretch to fend them off.
Richmond went 8-of-8 from the free throw line in the last two minutes on his way to setting the school record for free throws made without miss. Williams converted 4-of-4 opportunities and White calmly made both of his attempts.
"I'm really proud of the way we finished the game," Lebo said. "We got the ball in the right guy's hands, they fouled, and it was 14-of-14 from the foul line. That's pretty strong."
ECU, who finished the game shooting 50 percent from the field after shooting 61 percent in the second half, made 29-of-33 free throw attempts, including 21-of-24 after halftime.
Keon Lewis led UTSA with 16 points, while Jordan Sims added 14 and Hyjii Thomas 11.
After starting league play 0-6, East Carolina has won two of its last three games, and will head to Tulsa and North Texas for a pair of games next week.
