Pirates fall on the road at James Madison

Published 2:00 pm Monday, December 21, 2015

MICHAEL PRUNKA | DAILY NEWS SURVEYING: Junior forward Caleb White looks around for a play to make against NC A&T. He scored 20 points in ECU’s loss at JMU. The Pirates have been successful at home thus far, but have struggled on the road this season.

MICHAEL PRUNKA | DAILY NEWS
SURVEYING: Junior forward Caleb White looks around for a play to make against NC A&T. He scored 20 points in ECU’s loss at JMU. The Pirates have been successful at home thus far, but have struggled on the road this season.

HARRISONBURG, Va. — Ron Curry scored 23 points with four 3-pointers, including the go-ahead basket with 1:34 to play as James Madison defeated East Carolina 67-61 on Sunday to win its seventh straight.

JMU’s Shakir Brown scored 13 with a career-high four assists, Dimitrije Cabarkapa added 11 points, and the Dukes (9-3) outscored the Pirates 34-14 in the paint in a game that featured 13 lead changes and eight ties.

ECU junior Caleb White dropped in 20 points for the second straight game, burying a career-high six 3-pointers, while Kanu Aja added a career-best 12 points and career-high nine rebounds.

Trailing by one at halftime, East Carolina (7-5) led 42-41 after White’s back-to-back 3s, but JMU led 53-51 with 7:37 left after Cabarkapa scored seven straight points.

B.J. Tyson’s two free throws put East Carolina on top 61-60 with 2:48 left, but Curry hit a go-ahead 3 and Tom Vodanovich made a jumper for a 65-61 JMU lead with 29 seconds left. Brown iced it with two free throws.

The teams combined to make 18 of 65 3-pointers with East Carolina going 11 of 37 outside the arc.

More than half of East Carolina’s made field goals came behind the 3-point line as the shot 21 of 61 (.344) overall. JMU finished the game shooting 46.4 (26-56) percent after connecting on 14 of 26 (.538) in the second half.

Unable to penetrate the Dukes’ zone, ECU only made 10 trips to the free throw line.

East Carolina will conclude fall semester play Tuesday, Dec. 22, against South Carolina State inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.