By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
GREENVILLE — A balanced scoring attack led by James Legan’s game-high 20 points and sophomore Darrius Morrow’s 15 points and 10 rebounds helped East Carolina get off to a 2-0 start on Sunday when it topped St. Andrews 94-58.
The Pirates shot a sizzling 52 percent from the floor and had four players score in double figures, with two more with nine as they easily disposed of the Div. II Knights (0-2).
Sam Hinnant broke the double-digit barrier for the second night in a row as he scored 14, while sophomore swingman Daquan Joyner netted a career-high 13.
Sophomore Brock Young did most of the sharing as he dished out seven assists, and also scored nine points, while Hinnant was second on the team with five assists.
Sophomore center Chad Wynn followed up his 15 point effort in the season opener with a mediocre seven-point performance (3-8 from the floor), while pulling down only three boards in 14 minutes.
Wynn caught two fouls in the first half, and played sparingly throughout the second.
For the second straight night both Wynn and Morrow played together for a few minutes in the second half. McCarthy said he is comfortable playing both his bigs together if the matchups call for it.
For the second night in a row Jamar Abrams started at power forward and did a decent job on the glass. Abrams had five boards in 18 minutes to go along with seven points.
Abrams also had the highlight of the night when he threw down a nasty one-handed dunk over two Knights’ defenders.
Overall, team rebounding is still an issue as the Pirates managed to out-rebound St. Andrews by a slim 39-37 margin on Sunday.
McCarthy said the team needs to improve its effort on the glass.
Another area the Pirates need to improve on is team defense. Though they limited the Knights to 34 percent from the field, the Pirates must do a better job staying in front of their opponent and talking to each other.
The Pirates will get a chance to do that on Wednesday when they host Campbell at 7:30 p.m.