Lady Pirates Sprint Past 49ers For Eighth Straight Win
January 25, 2004 | Women's Basketball
GREENVILLE, N.C. -- The East Carolina women's basketball team continued its winning streak as it defeated Charlotte 80-55 Sunday afternoon in Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum. It was the Lady Pirates' eighth consecutive win, fifth in Conference USA play, and 12th in their last 13 games.
The win kept ECU tied atop the Conference USA standings by running its league record to 5-0.
ECU (14-4, 5-0) got 22 second half points from senior Courtney Willis. The Lady Pirates pounded the ball inside for 46 points in the paint, and outscored the 49ers (11-7, 4-1) 52 to 29 in the second half.
Leading by just two after intermission, 28-26, ECU opened the second period with a 9-2 run in the first 3:26 to extend its lead to 37-28, behind Willis' consecutive baseline jumpers. Jennifer Jackson capped off the run with her second three-pointer of the game.
Charlotte's Tiffanie Hoey drained a 16-foot jumper to cut the lead to seven, 37-30, but ECU's defense was just to much as they never looked back and walked away with an 80-55 victory.
In the first half, both teams seemed to be equal as they matched each other shot for shot, with five lead changes. The 49ers got on the board early as Hoey hit a 17-foot jumper for a 2-0 lead. But ECU bounced back behind consecutive by Willis to claim an 8-4 lead.
ECU went five minutes without a bucket until Jackson connected on two of her first half 11 points with a layup. Jackson would close out the final 5:40 of the half with eight of the Pirates 10 points.
Willis lad all players on the afternoon with 26 points and grabbed nine rebounds. She recorded her 18th consecutive double figure game on her way to becoming the ninth all-time scorer in Lady Pirate history. Jackson finished with 24 points, hitting 8-of-17 from the floor, including 3 three-pointers. Junior forward Shanita Sutton grabbed career-high 10 rebounds, while freshman Keisha Anthony dished out a career-high eight assists. For the 13th time this season, ECU out rebounded its opponent, bringing down 56 boards to Charlotte's 35.
Peaches Harris scored 18 points to lead Charlotte in scoring, while grabbing a team-high nine rebounds. Fellow 49er Tiffanie Hoey added eight points and eight boards in the loosing effort.
ECU will return to action this weekend as it hosts Marquette Saturday afternoon, Jan. 31 at 1 p.m., and nationally ranked DePaul Monday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m.
East Carolina v. Charlotte
Jan. 25, 2004
Postgame Notes
East Carolina v. Charlotte
Jan. 25, 2004
Head Coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener Quotes
I thought our kids did a great job in the second half, coming out and being aggressive offensively and doing a much better job defensively.
We talked about it at half time to her and Shanita. We figured both of them shouldn't be tired and they ought to be ready to go in the second half. As you saw Courtney got some lay-ups on some good transitions and she was able to have enough energy and make a lot of plays down the stretch.
We were crashing the boards, especially in the second half I thought we did a much better job. I think we had nine at half time and there were a lot of second and third opportunities we got in the second half that paid off for us.
That was one of our keys. We had to be able to handle Charlotte's pressure in the full court and the half court. I thought we did a good job only turning the ball over 14 times. Charlotte is a great defensive team and I thought we were able to move the ball quick and be aggressive on the offensive end.
We mixed up the defenses a little bit and I think we threw Charlotte off a bit. We tried to run a man defense and keep their good shooters from getting good shots and preventing offensive boards. They've got some very good shooters and a couple of really good drivers. I think we did a good job guarding their people today whether we were in zone defense or in man.
I'm really excited for our team today. That was something I told them in the locker room. The thing is, it just gets a little tougher as we go along. We've got Marquette and DePaul coming in year next weekend and I hope we can get a good crowd here for us.
She was missing shots but she brings so much to the team. There were other people that picked up the scoring slack. She was making a lot of things happen against the press defense and also moving the ball well.
