ECU Sank By James Madison At The Buzzer

Friday, November 9

Greenville, N.C.

7:45 PM

East Carolina University

1-1

James Madison

2-0

James Madison

ECU

Photo by: Greg Thompson

November 10, 2018 | Men's Basketball

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From wire and staff reports

GREENVILLE, N.C. --- Stuckey Mosley tossed in a floating, left-handed bank shot from 10 feet out as the buzzer sounded to lift James Madison to a 73-72 victory over ECU on Friday night.

ECU grabbed a 72-71 lead with nine seconds remaining when Seth LeDay hit a layup and was fouled by Develle Phillips, but LeDay missed the free throw and Dwight Wilson grabbed the rebound and the Dukes (2-0) called a timeout with five seconds left. Mosley took the ball at half court, dribbled down the left side of the floor, temporarily lost control of the ball before grabbing it and tossing in the game-winner.

"We let them get downhill," ECU Head Coach Joe Dooley said. "We were switching everything and we sort of backed up as opposed to leveling it off. We talk about it all the time that if you get dribbles toward the sideline that it's a harder angle to shoot and he got a decent angle going downhill. We were supposed to be at the level hedging it, or switching it towards the sideline but we backed up a little bit."

The Pirates trailed by 11 with 13:31 left to play, but continued to chip away at Dukes' lead and pulled within a possession six times before finally tying the game at 69-all with 1:59 remaining.

"I thought we gave ourselves a couple of opportunities to win the game and they had a couple of opportunities to put us away and they guys responded," Dooley said. "I thought when we looked like we were a little dead in the water, our guys did a good job of fighting back and making some plays."

Darius Banks paced James Madison with 19 points, eight rebounds and six steals, but he had seven of the Dukes' 26 turnovers. Mosley scored 16 points, while Matt Lewis and Wilson added 11 and 10, respectively.

LeDay topped the Pirates (1-1) with 21 points on 7-of-9 shooting from both the floor and the free-throw line. K.J. Davis hit four 3-pointers and scored a career-high 16, while Isaac Fleming filled the stat sheet with 11 points, six assists and five of ECU's 15 steals.

Despite shooting 51 percent for the game and 59.3 percent in the second half, ECU was unable to keep the Dukes off the free throw line, where they converted 26 of 37 opportunities.

ECU made just 15 of 26 foul shots.

"The amount of free throws we put them on the free throw line for doesn't help," Dooley explained. "We've got to make our own free throws. And that's something we will continue to work on but we've definitely got to make sure that we aren't putting guys on the free throw line 37 times and obviously in a lot of inopportune times also."

The Pirates return to action Sunday, Nov. 11, against Lamar. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.

POSTGAME QUOTES

ECU HEAD COACH JOE DOOLEY
Opening Statement:
"Obviously very disappointed with the outcome. I thought we gave ourselves a couple of opportunities to win the game and they had a couple of opportunities to put us away and they guys responded. I thought when we looked like we were a little dead in the water, our guys did a good job of fighting back and making some plays. But the amount of free throws we put them on the free throw line for doesn't help. We've got to make our own free throws. And that's something we will continue to work on but we've definitely got to make sure that we aren't putting guys on the free throw line 37 times and obviously in a lot of inopportune times also."

On the final shot:
"We needed to be at the level. We let them get downhill. We were switching everything and we sort of backed up as opposed to leveling it off. We talk about it all the time that if you get dribbles toward the sideline that it's a harder angle to shoot and he got a decent angle going downhill. So, we were supposed to be at the level hedging it, or switching it towards the sideline but we backed up a little bit. That's what it looked like."

On turnovers:
"We did it in spurts too and they were really egregious ones. I mean, simple pass and catch. We had a series where instead of making easy plays we were trying to make home runs and when we made easy plays to begin the game I thought the offense looked really good. You know guys would just sort of move the ball around. I mean, Jayden (Gardner) had a good past out of the post one time for a three and Isaac (Fleming) had a few driving kicks but you can't turn it over 22 times and go 15 for 26. I mean you look at our stats, you shoot 51 percent and then shoot 57 percent from the free throw line. Shooting 51 percent at home gets you a lot of wins usually so that's a rough way to lose."

JUNIOR SETH LEDAY
On the final shot:
"I mean the kid made a lucky shot. We were right there, had two defenders with hands in his face. We just have to give them credit. We had 22 turnovers. We've just got to play better and execute better as a team. We had 22 turnovers. That's unacceptable."

SENIOR ISAAC FLEMING
On the fan atmosphere:
"I mean we feed off the fans' energy. If the fans are into it and they're hype, that gets us hype. That gets us going and gets us moving faster than we're normally moving. We love our fans and we're sorry we let them down tonight."

On the final shot:
"KJ played great defense, he was right there, we just let him dribble downhill besides that the kid fumbled the ball with like one second left and he wasn't even looking at the rim, he just threw it up and banked it in."