Thursday, December 21, 2000

EAST CAROLINA ESCAPES WITH A 65-61 WIN OVER BLUE HOSE
Primus Scores Career-High 26 As ECU Wins Third Straight Game

GREENVILLE, N.C. -- East Carolina junior guard Fred Primus scored a career-high 26 points here Thursday night as the Pirate men’s basketball team won its third straight game, holding off visiting Presbyterian, 65-61.

Primus, in his first season at ECU after transferring from Barton (Kan.) Community College, has averaged 20.7 points in his last three games. Without Primus’ performance Thursday, East Carolina would have been in trouble against the NCAA Division II Blue Hose. The 6-3 Primus hit 8-of-12 field goals (67.0 percent) while the rest of the Pirates hit only 12-of-36 for 33.0 percent.

Just when it looked like ECU (7-3) might pull away from Presbyterian on several occasions Thursday, the Blue Hose kept coming back, mainly due to the outstanding effort of sophomore guard Chuck Rayford who scored a game-high 30 points.

“Presbyterian is a good team and had a lot of players back with some experience,” said East Carolina head coach Bill Herrion. “We knew coming in they would be a difficult team to play against. They are well-coached and smart.”

ECU led 39-31 with 17:51 before the Blue Hose went on an 9-0 run to take a 40-39 lead with 11:54 to play. The Pirates used their own 9-0 run moments later to assume a 53-44 advantage with 5:55 remaining.

Presbyterian (6-4) came back again, however, trimming the margin to 60-59 with 1:13 left. After an Erroyl Bing layup, ECU’s Primus hit 1-of-2 free throws and Gabriel Mikulas sank a pair with only 3.7 seconds remaining to give the Pirates a 65-61 lead.

“This was a good experience for us because we were able to come in and play a good team and stay close,” said Presbyterian head coach Gregg Nibert. “We lost by 37 points here last year and went down by four this year against a quality team. We just need to come out with even more intensity.”

Mikulas provided the Pirates with their only other double-figure scorer as he tallied 14. The Pirates were out-rebounded in the game by a 37-27 margin and hit 41.7 percent of their shots from the floor.

East Carolina will next be in action next Thursday, Dec. 28 when the Pirates play host to UNC Greensboro (7:00 p.m.). Presbyterian will entertain Benedict College on Dec. 30 in its next contest.