Lady Pirates Are Conference USA Tournament-Bound
March 02, 2003 | Women's Basketball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- East Carolina University's women's basketball team (12-15, 4-10 C-USA) is headed to Memphis despite dropping an exciting overtime match-up to Conference USA opponent Southern Miss (13-14, 6-8 C-USA) today by a score of 62-61.
The game was played at Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum in front of a crowd of 723.
"It's a tough loss," said East Carolina head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener, "but someone has to lose the game. Something we've been talking about all year is communication. The last play of the game, when they hit a three-pointer, was very evident of the lack of communication that we had. We were not checked up and it's a tough way to lose."
Despite the loss, the Lady Pirates gained their first-ever berth into the Conference USA Tournament due to UAB's 84-47 loss to Houston this afternoon. ECU and UAB have tied for the 12th and final spot in the tournament, but the Lady Pirates gain the bid by virtue of their win over the Lady Blazers earlier this season.
Southern Miss scored the first two points of the game on a layup by Tierra Lassiter. East Carolina's Courtney Willis and Jennifer Jackson answered with layups of their own, and put the Pirates up 4-2. Southern Miss would go ahead once more on a basket by Sonja Brown and hold the lead for almost two minutes until Jackson hit a two-foot jump shot to put the Pirates up once again. Jackson would go on to score the next three Pirate baskets, including back-to-back three point field goals to give ECU a nine point advantage. East Carolina would maintain the lead for the remainder of the half, going up by as much as 17 midway through the half. Southern Miss chopped away at the large East Carolina lead, and the Pirates took away a nine point advantage, 36-27, at the end of the first half of play.
La'Tasha Sumerall started the scoring in the second half, hitting a layup to cut the Pirate lead to seven. The Pirates fought back, and earned another double figure lead when Shanita Sutton hit a hook shot to put East Carolina up by 11. Again the Golden Eagles pulled closer to the lead. Up by only six, Courtney Willis hit a shot underneath the goal, and then hit two free throws just seconds later to give East Carolina a 10 point lead. It was after the Willis free throws at 12:05 in the second half, that Southern Miss went on a 14-5 run , taking its first lead since early in the first half. The largest Golden Eagle lead in the second half would be four points as East Carolina received a wake-up call and began answering Southern Miss.
With 43 seconds remaining, the Pirates were down by two, and Samantha Pankey stepped to the free throw line. Pankey hit both shots, putting the Pirates up 54-53. Dana Jones received the inbound ball for Southern Miss, running it down the floor, and hitting a layup to once again put USM on top. Jackson was called for her fifth foul with only nine seconds left to go in the half, sending Jones to the free throw line for a one-and-one. Jones made the shot, putting Southern Miss up by two. East Carolina ran the ball down the floor and passed it inside to Willis who hit a layup with only 1.4 seconds left on the clock, forcing the game into overtime with a 56-all score.
In the overtime period, Southern Miss won the tip, but fouled early on, sending Pankey to the line for ECU. Pankey hit the first of her free throw, giving the Pirates the 57-56 edge. Sumerall went to the line for Southern Miss soon after on a foul by Kris May-Richardson. Sumerall hit both her shot and gave USM the one-point lead. At 2:14 of overtime, Tali Robich hit third three-point shot of the game to give the Pirates a 60-58 lead. With only 1:11 left to play, Sutton fouled Jones, who went to the line for the Golden Eagles and hit only one shot. Soon after, Robich went to the line for ECU and also hit only one shot, but the Pirates were still up by two with only 11.4 seconds to go. As the clock ticked down, Lassiter shot a three and gave Southern Miss a one point lead. The clock ran out and the game ended the way it had began with a field goal by Lassiter, and Southern Miss would take the win, 62-61.
"We got lackadaisical in the game when we got a lead and we weren't playing to win," said Baldwin-Tener. "We weren't playing as hard as we could play like every possession mattered, whether we were going to the tournament or not. We got some easy shots and we missed a lot of easy shots. We shot 33 percent for the game, which is not very good. Then we let them shoot better than their percentage from the floor than they average."
Conference USA Tournament play begins on Thursday, March 6. East Carolina's opponent and game time will be announced.
