GREENVILLE — East Carolina’s Darrius Morrow picked up his fourth foul with 8 minutes, 14 seconds left in Wednesday’s game against Southern Methodist. Luckily for Morrow and his teammates, the outcome was pretty much already decided by then.

The Pirates’ men’s basketball team used a huge run to close the first half and led by as many as 27 in the second en route to its second consecutive win, 62-43, over Southern Methodist in Minges Coliseum. Morrow, the team’s senior leader and second-leading scorer, scored just eight points and leading scorer Miguel Paul had only nine, but a balanced attack and a key absence for SMU helped ECU (11-10, 2-6 Conference USA) notch the blowout win.

“Not having their best player obviously was a big factor in the game; let’s not kid ourselves,” East Carolina coach Jeff Lebo said of the Mustangs’ leading scorer and rebounder, Robert Nyakundi, who was benched with a hamstring injury. “Still, you have to go out and win the game and we did that.”

Without Nyakundi, one of the country’s top 3-point shooters, SMU (10-12, 2-6) struggled mightily on the offensive end and didn’t hit any of its 11 tries from beyond the arc.

ECU forward Robert Sampson reached double-figure scoring for the first time since a Nov. 14, 2011, loss at Campbell, leading all players with 13 points on 5-of-9 field goal shooting, including 3-of-3 from distance. He also missed a wide-open dunk less than 2 minutes into the second half and compounded the problem by being whistled for a technical foul for hanging on the rim. But instead of letting it bother him the rest of the game, Sampson flourished, scoring all 13 of his points after the embarrassing miscue.

“I was just having fun out there,” Sampson said of the breakaway dunk attempt gone awry. “I laughed it off. ... It happens to the best of us.”

N.C. State 56, Boston College 51: Scott Wood scored 16 points and C.J. Leslie 13 to lift N.C. State on Wednesday night.

C.J. Williams and Richard Howell each scored 10 points for the Wolfpack (16-7, 5-3 Atlantic Coast Conference). N.C. State has won 10 of its last 13. Howell also grabbed eight boards.

Playing after losses to North Carolina and Virginia, it was a perfect time for the Wolfpack to face the Eagles — a team they handled easily earlier this season.

“It’s a good win. Any time you win on the road is good. We know that,” N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried said. “I thought we didn’t play particularly great. I thought early we missed a lot of layups, missed a lot of shots around the basket.

“They were much better tonight than they were in the RBC Center, but we anticipated that,” Gottfried added. “I thought they would be a lot better — young players playing at home — but what I liked is that even on a night when we struggled to score we still found a way to win.”

(21) Florida State 68, Georgia Tech 54: Michael Snaer scored 21 points and Bernard James added 13 on Wednesday night as the Seminoles rallied for their sixth straight win.

Florida State (15-6, 6-1) has its best start in league play since joining the ACC. for the 1991-92 season and it keeps the Seminoles tied with North Carolina for first place. Duke is right behind at 5-1.

Miami 90, Maryland 86: Freshman Shane Larkin scored six points in the second overtime for the Hurricanes (13-7, 4-3 Atlantic Coast Conference), who sank seven consecutive free throws in the final 51 seconds to hang on and beat Maryland (13-8, 3-4).