GREENVILLE — East Carolina basketball escaped in its season-opening game against Grambling State Friday night, 61-53.

After a 30 minute delay following a prolonged ECU volleyball match, the Pirates (1-0) tipped off. The offense immediately struggled to get its footing. The Pirates struggled the entire game from the field and finished at 31 percent (14-for-45), but made plays at the right time to pull away.

“I knew it was going to be a fight, I knew we were going to get their best shot,” said junior Caleb White, who lead the game in scoring with 21. “Some things didn’t go our way. We turned the ball over a little much. Just things that are easily correctable when we get back to practice tomorrow.”

Freshman Kentrell Barkley played well in his Pirate debut and garnered a chain-link brick around his neck following the game, given by the strength coach to a player with a gritty performance.

He certainly earned it. The Durham native played tough under the basket and reeled in 11 rebounds. Barkley shot 3-of-6 from the field and 2-of-3 from the line to finish with 8 points. He finished the game with 27 minutes played, something he was happily surprised by.

“I just knew when I came in I had to do my job and help my team out,” Barkley said following the win.

Halfway through the second half, Grambling’s Michael Bethea (18 points) put the Tigers up by one, 41-40 with 9:18 left in the game. Following a Kanu Aja put-back score, Barkley killed the momentum with a steal-and-score that sparked a 14-2 run. That helped the Pirates get on top, 54-46, with three minutes remaining.

The Pirates spread things out during the run, with five players contributing, including B.J. Tyson, who was quiet offensively.

Tyson shot 0-for-9 from the field but had six points on six free throw attempts. The sophomore also finished with six rebounds and four assists, despite three turnovers.

“It’s a team effort when someone isn’t playing as well as they normally play,” White said of Tyson’s difficult outing. “But, luckily, we all played together and pulled out a ‘W’ in this one.”

Point guard play was a spot of concern in the opening game. Senior Prince Williams started as the ball handler, but turned the ball over twice and had just one assist in 13 minutes of play. Lance Tejada handled the majority of playing time at the point and did not turn the ball over in 24 minutes.

“(Tejada) did good. He’s got to be consistent shooting the basketball. That’s the whole thing with Lance,” Lebo said. “If he can clean up his shot selection and he can be consistent shooting the basketball for us, then I can trust him out there.”

The opening game represented the first implementation of number of new NCAA rules, including tighter judgment calls by officials on physical plays under the basket and hand-checks by defenders. ECU was whistled just 16 times while Grambling committed 26 fouls.

Lebo said the new way of calling games will take time to get used to.

“It’s different, some of the stuff is just different,” Lebo said. “Timeouts are different. It’s going to be a lot of getting players to listen and there are going to be some turnovers because of that.”

Lebo and his Pirates have the weekend to prepare for UNC Charlotte before a Monday night matchup at Minges Coliseum.