Lady Pirates Suffer Disappointing Loss at Hands of Tulane
February 28, 2003 | Women's Basketball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The road to Memphis is still uncertain for the East Carolina women's basketball team. The Lady Pirates dropped a crucial conference game to Tulane University tonight by a score of 85-64. With the loss, ECU falls to 12-14 on the season and 4-9 in Conference USA, while Tulane improves to 19-7, and 10-3 in the league. The game was played at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum in front of a crowd of 1,021.
"I think we were ready to play (tonight)," said ECU head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener. "I think we came out and we played hard. Actually, I think we fought them. Even giving up the easy shots and rebounds that we did I thought we fought them for 35 minutes, which I was proud of. We have to do the little things like rebounding and we have got to play better defense."
Tulane scored the first basket of the game, a lay-up by Teana McKiver, but Samantha Pankey answered back, hitting a 10-foot jumper to even the score at two. ECU scored the next basket, a lay-up by Jennifer Jackson, taking its first lead of the game. Tulane and ECU would go on to swap leads 10 times in the first half. The Lady Pirates' largest lead of the game was three points, which came on a three-point basket by Tali Robich. At the 12:20 mark of the half. Tulane's Kelly Nadeau, would tie things up again when she hits a three just 16 seconds after Robich. ECU would take the lead twice more, the last time coming on a lay-up by Jackson at 10:07 to give ECU a one-point advantage. Tulane's Britt Themann hit a three-point basket at 7:57 in the first half, to give Tulane a two point lead, which would be all the Green Wave needed to take control of the game. Tulane went on to increase its lead by as much as eight, but would take a six-point advantage into the locker room, leading 38-32 at the half.
Nadeau hit the first basket of the second half to put the Green Wave up by eight once again. East Carolina pulled within four early on in the half on a three-point shot by Kris May-Richardson, and Tulane's Themann answered with a three-point basket of her own. With 9:43 remaining in the half, Tulane had earned its first double digit lead of the game, going up by 10. The Lady Pirates chopped away at the lead once again, bringing the score to within eight on free throws by May-Richardson.
With less than eight minutes to go, however, ECU found itself once again down by double figures, and the Lady Pirates battled back as Jackson hit a three-point basket and Robich went in for a layup to cut the deficit to six. Tulane went on a 20-5 run to end the game, and would take home a 21-point win, 85-64.
"Give credit to Tulane," said Baldwin-Tener. "They have got a very good basketball team and they are a very defensive basketball team, one of the best in the conference. It is tough when Courtney (Willis) goes 6-15 and Jen (Jackson) 6-16, we missed a lot of shots that we have to make."
For East Carolina, Jackson had 18 points and 10 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season. Willis added 17 points and Robich had 11.
Tulane's McKiver notched her third double-double in a row, with 16 points and 12 boards. Lakeitha Hampton also had 16 points for Tulane, matching her career high, and Gwen Slaughter added 10.
The Lady Pirates will host Southern Miss on Sunday, March 2 at 2 p.m. at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. The Golden Eagles are currently 12-14 overall, and 5-8 in conference play.
"We have our backs against the wall now," noted Baldwin-Tener. "We have got to win on Sunday in order to be in a position to go to the tournament."
Coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener's Postgame Quotes
On turning point of game ...
"I think that was key when they made that little run but we were out-rebounded by 15. It is hard to win a game when they get 14 of their rebounds and we get 15 of them. We rebounded one more of their shots than they did and you can't win basketball games like that."
On rebounding ...
"They are bigger than us, which everybody is, but that is why we have got to use our body and box out. If we box out they come over our backs. I don't think we got one call over the back tonight because we refuse to box out. It doesn't matter how big you are, they are going to get some rebounds, but not 15 more than we do."
On Tulane's shooting performance ...
"They got a lot of easy shots. They got a lot of shots around the bucket and it seemed we had to work a little harder for our shots. They got a lot of easy put-backs on offensive rebounds."
On focus of team ...
"I think we were ready to play. I think we came out and we played hard. Actually, I think we fought them. Even giving up the easy shots and rebounds that we did I thought we fought them for 35 minutes, which I was proud of. We have to do the little things like rebounding and we have got to play better defense."
On inside scoring ...
"Give credit to Tulane. They have got a very good basketball team and they are a very defensive basketball team, one of the best in the conference. It is tough when Courtney (Willis) goes 6-15 and Jen (Jackson) 6-16, we missed a lot of shots that we have to make."
On upcoming game ...
"We have our backs against the wall now; we have got to win on Sunday in order to be in a position to go to the tournament."
