ECU Takes Down Grambling State For Lebo's 100th Win At School

Friday, November 11

Greenville, N.C.

8 p.m.

East Carolina University

1-0

Grambling State

0-1

Team	1	2	F
Grambling State	28	29	57
East Carolina	38	34	72

ECU Takes Down Grambling State For Lebo's 100th Win At School

November 12, 2016 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery

GREENVILLE, N.C. (AP) --- Caleb White scored 20 points and East Carolina opened the season with a 72-57 victory over Grambling State on Friday night.

Kentrell Barkley added 14 points and B.J. Tyson 12 points and eight assists for the Pirates. The win also gave head coach Jeff Lebo his 100th victory at East Carolina, just the third to do so in program history.

White's 3-point play and Andrew Washington's dunk put the Pirates up by 15 with 16 minutes remaining.

The Pirates shot 59.1 percent in the first half in taking a 38-28 lead and finished at 51.1 percent on 23-of-45 shooting, leading by as many as 19 in the second half. They were 21 of 33 at the free-throw line while the Tigers were 7 of 9.

Marcel Thompson scored 15 points and Ervin Mitchell 14 for Grambling.

The Net Worth

Senior Caleb White posted the 12th 20-point game of his career and second against Grambling State. White had 21 against Tigers during the Pirates' 2015-16 season opener.
In his first game starting at point guard, junior B.J. Tyson handed out a career-high eight assists. His previous career-high was six against SMU in Dallas last season.
Junior college transfer Jabari Craig grabbed a game-high nine rebounds in his ECU debut.
Graduate transfer Andre Washington blocked three shots in his Pirate debut. The most blocks any ECU player had in a game last year was three (Michel Nzege twice).

How It Was Won

East Carolina used a 20-7 run over a 6:39 stretch in the first half to turn a 12-8 deficit into a 28-19 lead. The Pirates led by 10 three times in the final two minutes of the half before going into the locker room up by that margin.
After the Tigers scored the first four points of the second half to cut the Pirates' lead to six, 38-32, East Carolina went on a 17-4 run to take its largest lead of the game at 55-36 with 13:21 to play.
Grambling cut the Pirates' lead to 10 , 61-51, with 5:09 to play before ECU scored eight unanswered, including the final six by White, to put the game away.

Inside The Box Score

ECU finished the game with six blocks. It blocked more than four shots in a game only once last season (6 at Memphis, 1/24/16).
The Pirates made as many free throws in the first half (9) as Grambling attempted in the game.
White, Barkley and Tyson combined to score 46 points, accounting for 64 percent of the Pirates' offense.
The frontcourt trio of Washington, Craig and redshirt freshmen Deng Riak combined for 17 rebounds and four blocks.
The highest percentage of points for the Pirates came in the paint, 26. ECU had 21 at the free throw line, 15 outside the arc and 10 between the lane and the 3-point line.
Four players made their ECU debut: Jabari Craig, Elijah Hughes, Andre Washington, Raquan Wilkins.

They Said It

Coach Lebo on his team's performance
"I was real impressed with my team defensively tonight. I thought they did a wonderful job man-to-man. Grambling plays really hard; I'm really impressed with them. We did some nice things I thought. We were really solid defensively. Six shot blocks that's the most we've had since at Memphis last season. That's a big difference for us, were much bigger, much more physical. I thought B.J. did a great job. Everybody that got in did something to help our team, even if they didn't score. Our freshmen did a nice job. Overall great win for us to start to be 1-0, now we have something to build on."
Tyson on playing point guard
"It was just getting back use to facilitating and just getting my teammates involved. It felt great, I wasn't nervous playing the one it was just more getting use to controlling the game again like I did in high school."
White on the team's defense
"I think one of the bright spots we took was how we defended on the perimeter. We can have a little more confidence defending on the perimeter now because we have rim protection back there. We've really been drilling pressuring the ball, and really moving your feet on defense. I was really happy with our defense."

Postgame Notes

Coach Jeff Lebo won his 100th game as the head coach at East Carolina University. He is the third coach in program history to reach the century mark for wins (Howard Porter, 182; Tom Quinn, 102).
East Carolina won its 17th consecutive season opener and 15th consecutive home opener.
The victory was the Pirates' 14th consecutive non-conference win inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.
The Pirates improved to 23-1 in home openers since 1995.

Next Tip-Off

East Carolina returns to action Monday, Nov. 14, at home against North Carolina A&T, who defeated Greensboro College in its season opener tonight. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.