ECU guard Tae Hardy dribbles up the court in the first half on Tuesday against Delaware State.

The second Joe Dooley era is off to a 1-0 start.

The Pirates dispatched of Delaware State with a balanced effort in an 81-56 victory on Tuesday night inside Minges Coliseum. ECU out-scored the Hornets by 17 points in the second half, as its deeper roster and heavy rotation of players wore down the visitors.

ECU was playing without star shooting guard Shawn Williams. It was surprisingly announced just prior to tip-off the reigning American Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year has been suspended indefinitely for a violation of team rules. There were plenty of ups and downs for the Pirates against Delaware State. After a slow start offensively, ECU rebounded to shoot 51.7 percent. The Pirates were most effective from 3-point range (8-of-14) and the free throw line (21-of-27).

The win marked ECU’s 20th consecutive season-opening triumph. Dooley is now 5-5 all-time in season openers, including 10-0 in home openers. Dooley was the head coach at ECU previously from 1995-99. He was re-hired from Florida Gulf Coast in April.

“When you win, it always feels great,” senior starting point guard Isaac Fleming said. “We’re starting off on the right foot and we’re just trying to keep it going with this momentum.”

Dooley opted to go with three freshmen in the starting lineup - guards Tae Hardy and Tyler Foster, and forward Jayden Gardner. Four Pirates scored in double figures, with Fleming and Seth LeDay scoring 12 points apiece. Hardy netted 11 and sophomore forward Justin Whatley scored a career-high 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Nine different ECU players played at least 16 minutes, and no player turned in more than 28 minutes of game action.

“As I’m looking at the box score, this is great team basketball,” Fleming said. “You’ve got more than four people in double-figures. You can’t beat that.”

Dooley said the rotation and starting lineup could change from game-to-game. ECU hosts James Madison on Friday night.

“There hasn’t been a ton of separation at a couple of spots,” Dooley said. “I think that’s a good thing and a bad thing. Guys have competed and no one has set themselves so far apart from another player to guarantee a starting spot, which I think makes practice a lot better. You’ve got to compete every day. We haven’t found our rotation yet, so we’re still trying to figure that out.”

Joe Dooley

The Pirates shot 55.6 percent in the second half from the field after putting in just 35.5 percent of their shots in the opening 20 minutes. Without Williams - ECU’s best 3-point shooter - the Pirates knocked down an efficient 57 percent of their shots from beyond the arc.

Freshman guard DeShaun Wade made three 3-pointers and scored nine points with five assists.

“I thought Justin and Shaun got us off to a good start in the first half,” Dooley said. “They made some shots. It’s not very usual you shoot better from 3 than you do from 2. That’s a little embarrassing almost, but I thought for the most part our 3-point shots were good attempts. I thought a couple times our young guys got a little sped up, but once we settled down in the second half, we showed some pretty good poise.”

Hardy, a late addition by Dooley after his hire in April, was everywhere at times on Tuesday. Playing a team-high 28 minutes, Hardy knocked down 4-of-8 shots from the field, grabbed four rebounds, dished out two assists and had a pair of steals. Hardy found out he was going to start right before the game.

"I had a little stomach jitters early but then it came like second nature, it's basketball," Hardy said. "Being an all-around player is what I go by. Offense, defense, I try to be a two-player. Defense creates good offense."

Winterville native and former South Central High School product Saleik Edwards netted a game-high 22 points for Delaware State, knocking down 8-of-17 shots from the field and six 3-pointers. No other Delaware State player reached double figures, but Dooley knows the games ahead will provide a much better test for his team.

“We did play hard,” Dooley said. “I thought there were some really good stretches and I thought there were some stretches we were really disorganized on defense, which worried me. For the most part, I thought we had guarded ball-screens very well during the preseason, but tonight we had some problems. When you look at it statistically, it looks a lot better than how it will look on tape. They had some looks and chances at the rim they should’ve converted. We’ve got to clean that up.”