SMU 77, East Carolina 54: Nic Moore scored 11 of his 14 points in the first half and added six assists as the host Mustangs led wire-to-wire in an American Athletic Conference rout over the Pirates.

Markus Kennedy had 12 points and six rebounds for SMU (14-4, 5-1 AAC), which played without sophomore guard Keith Frazier (10.5 points) after he was declared academically ineligible following an NCAA investigation. Ben Moore and Ryan Manuel added 11 points each as the Mustangs shot 58.8 percent in winning their fourth straight.

Terry Whisnant scored 24 points and Caleb White added 14 for East Carolina (8-10, 1-4), which shot 35.8 percent and looked listless three days after knocking off Houston for its first AAC win since making the jump from Conference USA this season. Leading scorer B.J. Tyson (13.5 points) was held scoreless in the first half and finished with two points on 1-of-8 shooting.

Nic Moore drained a trio of 3-pointers in the first 10 minutes of the game as the Mustangs jumped out 18-9, and a shot from the arc from Ben Emelogu pushed the edge to 26-12. After White drained a 3-pointer for the Pirates to close the gap to eight, Ben Moore drained two from the charity stripe and Nic Moore closed the half with a drive to the hoop as SMU headed to the locker room with a comfortable 34-22 advantage.

Ben Moore scored five points during an opening 11-2 second-half run – capped by an alley-oop from Nic Moore to Manuel – for a 45-24 lead with 15 minutes left. A pair of layups by Kennedy pushed the bulge to 60-29 midway through the half and the Mustangs coasted to their 12th win in 13 games, with a 56-50 road loss at Cincinnati the only blemish during the stretch.

GAME NOTEBOOK: SMU G Sterling Brown started in place of Frazier and had 10 points and seven rebounds. … The Mustangs shot 11-of-19 in the first half, including 5-of-11 from the arc, and held the Pirates to 7-of-20 while forcing 10 turnovers. ... SMU committed only nine turnovers.