By By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
The young Pirates continue to pass just about every test that has come their way so far this season. They may not be getting “A”s, but they are certainly getting “W”s.
The latest challenge for the East Carolina basketball team came Saturday when it played its first road game of the season and beat a traditionally tough home team, Winthrop Eagles, 63-60.
Winning away from home is always tough for an inexperienced club, but for the Pirates to pull out a victory down the stretch as visitors is even more impressive.
Once again, Sam Hinnant was a monster as he tallied 19 points, and scored the go-ahead bucket for ECU.
Hinnant has really done a nice job of shouldering the load offensively for East Carolina, and has become a strong leader on the court.
The Pirates also got a good effort from freshman power forward Darrius Morrow, whose 13 points were second best Saturday.
Morrow’s effort led him to be named the C-USA Rookie of the Week.
Also coming up big in the paint was Chad Wynn who, despite having four fouls, pulled down a career-high 11 rebounds. For the game, ECU out-boarded Winthrop 44-39.
ECU will be on the road again tonight when it faces UNC-Wilmington (3-4), which will be playing at home for the first time in five games.
The Seahawks played their last four games at South Padre Island, Texas during the South Padre Invitational, and got walloped in their last outing as they fell 97-64 to Texas A&M Corpus Christi.
UNC-Wilmington, which is sitting at eighth in the Colonial Athletic Association, is also the school that former Pirate John Fields transferred to, though he won’t be playing this season because students that transfer are forced to sit out a season.
Amongst the playing for the Seahawks will be their three double-digit scorers in Chad Tomko (19 ppg), Johhny Wolf (17 ppg) and Dominique Lacy (16 ppg).
Tomko, the 5-11 sophomore from Charlotte Independence, is off to a solid season as he also leads his team with 40 assists, and his 18 steals are nearly half of the Seahawks total (40).
The 6-7 F/C Lacy, who is also a sophomore, is shooting nearly 50 percent from the floor and is the team leading rebounder with nine a night.