ECU and Alabama Move On In U.S. Cellular Classic
December 07, 2002 | Women's Basketball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The East Carolina University women's basketball team improved to 2-4 on the season this afternoon with an 80-55 win over Bethune-Cookman in the opening round of the four-team U.S. Cellular Classic.
Eleven Lady Pirates put numbers on the board during the game to run away with the win, the first for Head Coach Sharon Baldwin at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. The game was played in front of a crowd of 420.
"I think it was a good team effort and I was happy that everybody was able to contribute," said Baldwin. "It is good for your team to go out there and practice hard. Everybody practices hard everyday and it is nice to reward all the players in a game like this."
Bethune-Cookman had a lead just seconds into play when the Wildcats went up 3-2, but it would be the only lead they would have in the game. The Pirates would go on a 29-6 scoring run to take the lead 31-9 with 5:13 left to play in the half. BCC would only score 11 more points before the break, and ECU would take the 23 point lead, 43-20 into the locker room at half time.
The Lady Pirates didn't back down in the second half, once again piling on the points against the Wildcats. Bethune-Cookman played the Pirates closer in the second half, scoring 35 points to East Carolina's 37, but it would not be enough to contain East Carolina's strong offensive play.
ECU was also strong on the boards this afternoon, pulling down 26 more than BCC, 50-24. Jennifer Jackson led the rebounding for the Pirates with seven boards on the night. Tali Robich and Katie Cloud each had six.
"That (rebounding) was one thing we really needed to concentrate on," said Baldwin, "and we needed to take care of the rebounds if we were going to win the game. They average 19 offensive rebounds a game and we cut that down to twelve and we were able to get on the offensive boards some too."
East Carolina started Robich, Courtney Willis, Jackson, Shanita Sutton, and Alisha Bishop this afternoon for the second straight game, and used all available players from the bench, alternating lineups throughout the game.
"I hope so," said Baldwin when asked if she had found the right lineup to run the offense. "I think we were a lot more patient on offense and with the exception of about five minutes there in the second half when they jumped in that press and we seemed to panic a little bit, I think we were pretty settled and ran our offense pretty good."
The Pirates had 26 turnovers in the game, and the Wildcats converted 14 points on the Pirate mistakes.
"I think we had too many turnovers once again," noted Baldwin. "I think sometimes we are a little bit careless with the ball. We think maybe we are the only people on the floor and people come up behind us and knock it out. We have got to protect the ball a little bit more. We had 26 turnovers and that is too many to have."
For the fifth time this season, three or more players have posted double figures in scoring. Willis and Sutton each had 12, while Bishop had 10.
In the first game of the tournament, Alabama defeated Liberty, 67-64.
The Tide was up early in the game, leading by as much as 17 in the first half. The Flames would push forward however, and come back to take a small lead over Alabama with just minutes to play in the game, but the Crimson Tide hung on for the win. The Tide shot 44.4 percent from the floor and made 11 three-pointers in the contest. Despite a distinct height disadvantage, the Tide lost the rebounding battle by just two, 35-33. Liberty's Stephanie Walker led all scorers with 15 in the loss. The leading scorer for Alabama was Katie Sipe with 13 points.
Liberty will play Bethune-Cookman tomorrow at 1 p.m. in the consolation game of the tournament, while East Carolina will play Alabama in the championship game set for 3 p.m.
"Alabama is a great team," said Baldwin. "They play in the Southeastern Conference and they are a tough team that can beat you outside with their great 3-point shooters and they also have some size in the post. It is definitely going to have to be a 40 minute game that we play smart and play together on offense."
