Shawn Williams

Freshman guard, Shawn Williams, during Saturday's game against the University of Memphis.

The East Carolina University men’s basketball team (9-13, 3-8 AAC) got into another overtime thriller Saturday, but this time walked away with the 88-85 victory over the University of Memphis Tigers (14-9, 5-5 AAC).

The first half went well for ECU on both ends of the court. Seven players scored at least once for the Pirates, and six scored at least twice. Guard Shawn Williams led the way with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting from the field in the first half, as well as going 2-for-3 from three. Forward Kentrell Barkley had nine points and five rebounds for ECU. The Pirates led 41-36 at the half.

Offensively, as a team the Pirates shot 58.6 percent from the field in the first half (17-for-29), assisting on eight of those field goals. On defense, the Pirates did allow the Tigers to shoot 59.1 percent from the field (13-for-22), but did force nine turnovers that led to 13 of the 41 points for ECU. The Pirates led for 17:30 out of the first 20 minutes, which is a credit to the team basketball they are playing, as well as limiting the amount of turnovers committed against the Tigers.

“We are a new team,” Williams said. “We are still learning how to play with each other in crunch time. We are trying to stay confident in the game.”

ECU jumped out to a 10-point lead early in the second half, when it lead 51-41 with 16:53 left in the period. Memphis fought back and both teams went back and forth after being tied at 60 with 08:44 remaining in the half. The game was tied at 77-77 with 0:06 seconds left in the game. The Pirates had the opportunity to win at the buzzer but forward Justin Whatley’s layup was rejected at the last second to go to overtime.

In the extra five minutes, ECU and Memphis battled harder than they did in regulation. The Tigers went up 80-78 in the first minute of the period. Williams, who had 20 points entering OT, had back-to-back three-point baskets to put the Pirates up 84-80. Williams would score the final eight points of the game, and help ECU snap its three-game losing streak with the 88-85 victory over Memphis.

“We took pride tonight in the game,” Barkley said. “We believed in each other, and had more confidence coming off the loss.We tried to stay focus, we faced adversity on the court, we tried keeping everybody calm and play Pirate basketball.”

At the end of the game, the Pirates shot 49.2 percent from the field (31-for-63), and had 20 assists as a team in the game. Williams scored a career-high 30 points, Barkley had 19 points and 13 rebounds reaching the 1000-point milestone, and the 600 rebound milestone as well against the Tigers.

Junior guard Isaac Fleming recorded the first triple-double ever in school history when he recorded 11 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.

“It has not totally hit me yet, they just told me in the locker room that I was the first to record a triple-double in school history,” Fleming said. “I think that when I go home and wake up tomorrow, I will definitely feel like ‘dang I really just did that.’ It is still unreal.”

The next game for ECU will be on Wednesday as it hits the road for a matchup with the Temple University Owls. The Pirates won the last two matchups sweeping the season series last year 2-1.

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