ESPN Men's Basketball

GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Maurice Kemp scored more than 20 points for the third straight game and East Carolina cooled Alabama-Birmingham's previously red-hot 3-point shooting in a 74-61, Conference USA victory Wednesday night.

Kemp scored 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting and made 8 of 8 free-throw attempts for the Pirates (14-9, 5-5), who had dropped three of their past four. Akeem Richmond added 15 points, Ty Armstrong 12 and Miguel Paul 11 with 11 assists.

UAB (11-14, 3-7) was coming off a season-best 9-of-16 shooting performance from 3-point range against Marshall, but hit just 2 of 16 from deep Wednesday. Forward Rod Rucker led the way with 14 points, but none of the Blazers' guards reached double figures.

East Carolina also beat UAB 91-85 on Jan. 23.

The Pirates, ranked eighth nationally, averaging 17.1 assists, had 16 helpers. UAB entered ranked 10th with 16.7 assists per game, and had 15 Wednesday.