Reining tournament champion ECU fell to Wright State in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament on Tuesday, 73-59.

Boasting a sub-par 17-16 record, the Pirates earned an automatic bid and a home opener in this year’s CIT after senior shooting guard Akeem Richmond drained a 25-foot jumper at the buzzer to win last year’s championship game.

Down double-digit points to Savannah State in last season’s CIT first-round game, head coach Jeff Lebo’s squad fought back, won and set the tone for the remainder of the tournament. Tuesday’s contest told a very different story.

The Raiders began the game on a 7-0 run and would never look back. Forwards AJ Pacher and Cole Darling controlled the boards early and capitalized on second-chance points in the paint. ECU’s primary scorers, Richmond, freshman Caleb White and junior Paris Roberts-Campbell, were silenced and held to a combined six points in the first half.

ECU’s zone collapsed, drawn to the Raiders’ bigs. Guards Matt Vest and Reggie Arceneaux took advantage of open looks as a result, draining uncontested threes throughout the contest.

“I thought they were really disciplined to go inside against us,” Lebo said. “It was hard to get [Richmond] looks out there.”

As Richmond rolled off screens, the Raiders switched, covering him from every angle. The Pirates’ star shooting guard finished with just six points, tying a season-low.

The rhythmic three-point shooting continued in the second half, as the Raiders shot 60 percent from behind the arc. Conversely, the Pirates ended a mundane 4-for-23 from range.

Despite raising the Maniacs to their feet, narrowing the lead to six points with five minutes to go, ECU failed to close.

The loss ends the Pirates season and the notable collegiate career of ECU’s prolific shooting guard, Richmond, who fill finish with 416 three-point baskets in two seasons with Rhode Island and two with ECU.

“Akeem…he’s had a great career for us here,” Lebo said. “He’s broken the record books, won a lot of big games for us, and he’ll be remembered for a long time for the shot he made in this tournament last year at the end of the game. I’ve very proud of their attitude, and they’re very proud to put that East Carolina jersey on.”

The Pirates finish their final season in the Conference USA with a 17-17 record. Next year, ECU will look to its young guns to lead the team into the American Athletic Conference, where ECU will regularly face historic basketball powerhouse Connecticut, one of the best defensive teams in the country in Cincinnati and an old conference foe, Larry Brown’s SMU Mustangs.

“They’re going to continue to get better,” Lebo said. “I challenge all our guys who are coming back. It’s going to be competitive every day in practice. They were great, they worked really hard, but naturally there’s some complacency that comes into play. It’s just the way it is.”