Pirates Drop Heartbreaker To UNC Wilmington, 57-56
December 18, 2004 | Women's Basketball
WILMINGTON, N.C. -- With three seconds remaining in the game senior guard Jennifer Jackson's two-foot jumper narrowly missed the rim and in-state foe UNC Wilmington sneaked out a 57-56 win Saturday afternoon inside Trask Coliseum.
Wilmington's Meg Withrow connected on her only points of the game with 10 seconds left to put the Seahawks (3-4) up one, 57-56. The Pirates (2-7), who tied the game at 55-55 on Jackson's 20th point of the day, had a chance to go up one when Jackson failed to convert on her free throw after being fouled by Tanika Harrison with 26 seconds to go. On the failed free throw attempt, LaToya Horton grabbed one of her five rebounds and was taken to the ground on the put back. She was able to hit the front end of two shots and gave ECU the lead at 56-55.
"I'm very please with the way the team played today," said head coach Sharlon Baldwin-Tener. "This is the first time in a while that we really played as a team. We went through our offensive progressions nicely and our defense was much better. We're still making some mental mistakes, but we will continue to work hard and figure those things out."
Jackson, who moved into 11th place on ECU's all-time scoring list, sparked a 10-4 run to close out the first half hitting five of her 10 points to carry the Pirates to a 33-29 halftime lead. Senior guard Viola Cooper finished with eight points, while Shanita Sutton recorded her sixth double-figure game of the season with 12 points. Sophomore Amanda Mills saw her first action of the season and netted eight points in the loss.
ECU will be back in action Tuesday, Dec. 21 when they host West Virginia inside Williams Arena with a 1 p.m. tip scheduled.
