Greenville, N.C. -- East Carolina put five players in double figures and scored a season-high 88 points en route to a 48-point win over St. Andrews, 88-40, inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum Monday night, ending a five-game losing streak.

All five starters scored double digits, including junior Corey Rouse, who finished with a game-high 19 points and career-best 15 rebounds. Senior Moussa Badiane also recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore Japhet McNeil finished with a career-high 15 points, while fellow backcourt starters Tom Hammonds and Mike Cook added 14 and 11 points respectively.

The Pirates (5-7) held St. Andrews to an ECU opponent record low 22.8 percent shooting and yielded the fewest points in the 37-year history of Minges Coliseum. The Knights (5-2) made just five field goals in the second half and finished the game 13-of-57 from the field.

McNeil made his first of three threes to open the game and the Pirates never looked back, opening a 10-point lead in the first five minutes of the game. Bobby Short's three-pointer trimmed the ECU lead to seven with 11:29 left in the first half, but that is as close as the Knights would get. ECU built a 22-point lead during the half and led by 19 at the break, 39-20.

ECU outscored St. Andrews 40-10 in the first 15 minutes of the second half and eventually found itself up by 51 late in the game.

Taiwon Grooms led St. Andrews with 13 points and six rebounds.

The Pirates return to action on Wednesday, January 5 against USF in its Conference USA opener. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. inside Minges Coliseum.

ECU Head Coach Bill Herrion
"Once you get a win you feel good about yourselves. You feel a litte bit better and then anything can happen. I told the guys that you can't go on a winning streak until you win the first game and tonight we did that."

"I like the way that we won the basketball game. I thought our kids really played hard, there was good energy, we really defended on the defensive end of the floor and we had good contributions out of some people."

"In the big picture, it was important right now for us to win a basketball game. I thought our kids came out, did their job and took care of business."

"We have got to start getting a little more aggressive defensively and try to scramble the game a little bit and turn them over to see if we can get some easy buckets."

"I thought our defense was excellent tonight. I know they haven't played a game in a month and they are a Division II basketball team but holding anybody to 22 percent is guarding. You don't do that unless your kids play hard."

"Corey Rouse, at this point after 12 basketball games, could be our most consistent player. Corey just keeps getting better and better an better. What I really like about Corey is how he is rebounding the basketball."