East Carolina University
Charlotte
Gameday: ECU Opens Road Schedule At Charlotte
November 16, 2016 | Men's Basketball
| Game 3: East Carolina at Charlotte | |
| Date | Thursday, November 17 |
| Time | 7 p.m. (ET) |
| Location | Charlotte, N.C. (Halton Arena) |
| Game Notes | East Carolina \\\ Charlotte |
| Coverage | Live Stats \\\ Watch Live \\\ Listen Live |
| Social Media | Twitter: @ECUScoreboard \\\ @ECUPirateHoops |
After posting back-to-back wins inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum to start the win, East Carolina is on the road for the first time this season and headed to the Queen City to face cross-state rival Charlotte Thursday night at 7 p.m.
The Pirates have won the last two meetings in the series, but haven't posted a victory at Charlotte since 1983, dropping the last nine contests on the Niners' home floor.
ECU will be faced with the challenge of stopping Charlotte's high powered offense that has reached the century mark in each of its first two games. The 49ers outlasted Elon, 100-95, on the road Monday after opening the season with a 101-88 victory over Newberry at Halton Arena.
"If you want to be good, you've got to take care of business at home, but you've got be able to play well on the road, almost flawlessly because you're competing against a lot of different factors," ECU Head Coach Jeff Lebo said. "It'll be a good challenge for us against a good Charlotte team."
East Carolina will look first to its defense, which held each of its first two opponents to less than 60 points and didn't allow either Grambling State or North Carolina A&T to shoot over 35.0 percent from the floor. They averaged 7.5 blocks and 7.5 steals in those contests and out-rebounded their opponents by an average of 12.5.
"I thought we defended really well" Lebo said following the win over N.C. A&T. "We were up 21 with seven minutes to go, we kind of went through the motions the last seven minutes, but overall we did some good things particularly defensively."
The frontcourt duo of Jabari Craig and Andre Washington has combined for 33 rebounds and nine blocks in the first two games. Craig led the Pirates in rebounding each of the first two contests, grabbing nine ad 13 boards respectively. He had as many offensive rebounds by himself Monday night as A&T did as a team.
"He's going to get better and better," Lebo explained. "He's a great listener. He's wonderful to coach. We've got to build his confidence. He's not a confident guy, but he could be so good once he figures it out."
Offensively, the Pirates have relied on returning scoring trio of Caleb White, B.J. Tyson and Kentrell Barkley. The threesome averaged 40.0 points between them at home with White and Tyson scoring double figures in each game.
Charlotte sophomore Jon Davis leads six 49ers in double figures with 25.0 points per game. Junior Hudson Price, son of second-year head coach Mark Price, is averaging 14.0 ppg.
The 49ers have made 21-of-41 3-point attempts in two games, but have also surrendered 24. They are shooting 51.9 percent overall from the floor and yielding 48.1 percent to their opponent.
