ECU Continues Las Vegas Invitational Play Against Little Rock
November 25, 2015 | Men's Basketball
LAS VEGAS --- After playing its first two games at home and then its next two on the road, East Carolina is set for a pair of neutral site games over Thanksgiving, beginning at 11 a.m. PST Thursday. The Pirates will face Little Rock at the Orleans Arena in their third game of the Continental Tires Las Vegas Invitational. The game can be heard across the Pirate-IMG Radio Network or on the Tunein app. There is no television or video web stream for this game.
It'll be the first-ever meeting between the Pirates and Trojans, who defeated San Diego State on Saturday, 49-43, putting in motion the fury the Aztecs displayed versus ECU three nights ago.
The Pirates, who played extremely well in a variety of areas against No. 14 California on Friday night, ran into a San Diego State squad that doesn't lose back-to-back games. The Aztecs blitzed East Carolina in the opening four minutes scoring 16 unanswered points and never looked back.
"We knew coming into the game that after a loss we were not going to get the same team that played against Little Rock," Pirates coach Jeff Lebo said. "They really shot it way better than they've shot it all year. That really put us on our heels to start."
East Carolina showed some fight and resiliency in the second half and basically played the Aztecs even for the final 20 minutes. Sophomore Lance Tejada was the lone Pirate to score double figures as he finished with 11 points, while fellow classmate B.J. Tyson matched his career-high with eight rebounds and played a career-high 39 minutes.
Under Coach Lebo, ECU has won four of its last six games during the regular season on a neutral floor.
Although East Carolina has struggled shooting the basketball from the field, the free throw line has been an entirely different story. It's one of three American Athletic Conference team to be shooting over 75 percent at the charity stripe this season and shot nearly 80 percent (.791) there in the previous three games.
Junior Caleb White leads the Pirates in scoring (14.8 ppg) and minutes per game (37.2), which also ranks as tops in The American. Three additional players are averaging more than eight points per contest to help ECU to an average of 66.2 points per game.
Little Rock has limited its first three opponents to an average of 49.7 points per game en route to a 3-0 start.
Marcus Johnson, Jr. sits atop the Trojans' scoring leader board with 14.7 ppg followed by Josh Hagins with 12.0 ppg. Six-foot-3 senior guard Jermaine Ruttley is Little Rock's leading rebounder with 6.7 boards per night.
| East Carolina Game 5: Little Rock | |
| Date | Thursday, Nov. 26 |
| Time | 11 a.m. PST/2 p.m. EST |
| Location | Las Vegas Nev. (Orleans Arena) |
| Tickets | Buy Tickets |
| Live Game Coverage |  Radio: WNCT 107.9FM | ECU Pirates On Demand (Listen Live) TuneIn Radio Online (within the app search ECU or Pirate IMG Sports Network) |
| Live Stats | Stat Broadcast |
| Game Notes | East Carolina  | Little Rock |
