East Carolina Women Drop Conference Game to Charlotte
January 19, 2003 | Women's Basketball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Four Charlotte women scored in double-figures this afternoon as the Lady Pirates (8-7, 0-2 C-USA) fell to Charlotte (10-5, 2-0 C-USA) by a score of 79-63, losing their second straight conference game of the year, both to the 49ers. The game was played at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum in front of a crowd of 387.
|
East Carolina won the tip to start the game, and Willis put the first two points of the game on the board with a lay-up. The Lady Pirates would hold on to the advantage for just under four minutes when Pam Brown hit a three-foot jumper for Charlotte to give the 49ers their first and final lead of the game. Charlotte continued adding to its lead throughout the half, and the closest ECU came to taking back the lead was at the 13:42 mark on a Willis layup to cut the deficit to three. That would be the last basket for the Pirates until the 6:58 mark when Willis hit a jumper, stopping a 12-0 Charlotte run. The 49ers went up by as much as 20 at one point in the half, but ECU was able to chip away at the lead, cutting the deficit to 10 (31-21) at the half.
Willis started the scoring again in the second half to cut the Charlotte lead to just eight, but that would be as close as East Carolina would come to the lead for the rest of the game. Charlotte continued its offensive attack of the Pirates, and went up by 26 midway through the second half. Again the Lady Pirates cut away at the lead, with help from Jackson who hit three three-point baskets in a row. The one-two combination of Jackson and Willis scored 11 of the 16 field goals the Pirates had in the second half. Despite their efforts, however, the women were not able pull out a win, and dropped its second straight conference game to Charlotte.
"Charlotte is a very good team," said ECU head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener. "They are more aggressive, stronger and quicker than we were. This game was different than last Friday against Charlotte. We played a lot harder, but we still had too many breakdowns offensively and defensively."
The women's basketball team will hit the road for a double-dose of conference action this weekend as it travels to TCU and Houston. The Lady Pirates will face the Horned Frogs on Friday, January 24, at 8 p.m. EST and then face the Cougars on Sunday afternoon, January 26, at 3 p.m. EST.
