Lady Pirates Fall Short Against Saint Louis
January 31, 2003 | Women's Basketball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- Despite having three players score in double-figures, the ECU Lady Pirates dropped their fourth straight game on Friday night to the Saint Louis Billikens by a score of 76-63. The game was played at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum in front of a crowd of 373.
East Carolina (8-10, 0-5 C-USA) started the scoring just seconds into the game as Stefanie Warner hit a jump-shot to give East Carolina the lead.
The Lady Pirates would hold on to the lead throughout the entire first half, going up by as much as 13 at one point. Courtney
Willis made a layup to give ECU a four-point lead. Harmonie King gave the Billikens their first points of the night, hitting a three-point basket to cut the Pirate lead to one. That would be as close as Saint Louis (12-9, 3-3 C-USA) would come to the lead in the first half.
ECU continued adding to its lead throughout the half, and earned its largest lead of the evening (13 points) after Tali Robich hit a layup on a fast break. Soon after, Saint Louis began chipping away at the Pirate lead, cutting it to just three points heading into the locker rooms at the half.
"I thought that Saint Louis came out a little flat" said ECU head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener. "They weren't playing as hard as they were after about 10 or 15 minutes in. They kicked it up a little bit and when they did, we didn't respond."
In the second, Saint Louis tied the game for the first time on a basket by Jana Haywood. A Willis layup gave ECU the lead once again, but for only less than a minute as Star Jackson hit a three -point basket to give the Billikens their first lead of the game. The Pirates could do no more than tie SLU for the next four minutes until the Billikens took their final lead of the game on a free throw by Amie Van Deurzen, going up 47-46. East Carolina would never again tie the game. The Lady Pirates came within one point on two more occasions, but could not get the go-ahead point that they needed. Saint Louis continued building on its lead, and ended up with a 15-point advantage at the end of the outing.
"For the most part in the second half we had a hard time getting into any kind of rhythm," said Baldwin-Tener. "Until we can handle the press I think we are going to get pressed every night for about 40 minutes."
Willis had 16 points on the night for the Pirates while Jennifer Jackson and Robich had 17 and 10 points respectively. Willis and Jackson led the team in rebounding each with seven.
East Carolina was outrebounded 42-32. The Pirates committed 21 turnovers resulting in 13 Saint Louis points. "We have a hard time taking care of the ball and a lot of times we have unnecessary turnovers," said Baldwin-Tener. "It is frustrating as a coach to see how we respond to the press and when we press them, they shoot lay-ups. It is just tough."
