By Al Myatt
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GREENVILLE — Old Dominion pulled away from a tie at 37 at halftime for an 81-70 basketball win at East Carolina on Saturday night in the Conference USA opener for both programs.

Guard Keenan Palmore of the Monarchs (7-9) made 11 of 13 field goal attempts to lead all scorers with 23 points.

Aaron Bacote had 18 points, six assists and two steals in ODU's first C-USA contest ever.

Dimitri Batten scored on a jumper with 19:46 remaining to put the Monarchs ahead to stay at 39-37. Batten finished with 12 points.

ECU (11-5) had four players in double figure scoring with Paris Roberts-Campbell leading the way with 21 points. Akeem Richmond hit four of his 11 attempts from behind the arc as he scored all 14 of his points in the second half.

Petar Torlak came off the bench to hit four of six from deep as he totaled a career high 12 points.

Michael Zangari had 11 points and five rebounds in 18 minutes.

Prince Williams scored nine points and had five assists.

ODU outrebounded the Pirates 36-28 as Roberts-Campbell led ECU on the boards with seven caroms. Brandan Stith had six grabs off the glass for ECU.

The Monarchs made 31 of 55 field goal attempts for 56.4 percent. ECU was 22 of 55 from the field for 40 percent. The Pirates made just 10 of 29 after the half for 35.5 percent.

ODU had a 50-24 advantage on points in the paint.

A crowd of 5,328 saw ECU commit just seven turnovers.

The Monarchs extended their lead in the series to 37-14 with their fifth straight win over the Pirates.

ECU visits Florida Atlantic for a 7 p.m. tipoff on Thursday and continues league play at Florida International on Saturday at 5 p.m.