Women's Basketball Heads To Lone Star State
February 17, 2005 | Women's Basketball
About the Pirates: East Carolina will look to continue its winning ways this weekend when they travel to the Lone Star state to take on Houston (Feb. 18) and TCU (Feb. 20). Friday night's game will be televised on Fox Sports South starting at 9 p.m. eastern. Winners of four of their last six games, the Pirates clinched its third consecutive C-USA Tournament berth Sunday with a thrilling 71-65 overtime win against Louisville.
In this past weekends opener, the Pirates picked up a much needed win against Cincinnati (58-31) behind Jennifer Jackson's game-high 19 points. Fellow seniors Shanita Sutton and Viola Cooper also scored in double-digits with 18 and 10 respectively. Sutton recorded her 15th double-digit game of the season going a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor and 6-of-6 from the free throw line, while grabbing six rebounds.
Against Louisville, the Pirates avenged an overtime loss from a year ago with a win of their own in dramatic fashion. With four second remaining on the clock in regulation, Jackson connected on her fifth 3-poiniter of the afternoon as time expired to send the game into overtime. During the overtime period, the Pirates connected on 12-of-14 free throws, outscoring the Cardinals 14-8 and recorded its sixth win in C-USA action. Jackson once again led three players in double-figures with a game-high 31 points and also brought down a team-best 11 rebounds for her fifth double-double of the season on her way to garnering C-USA Player-of-the-Week honors.
Jackson currently leads the Pirates in scoring (16.4 ppg) and rebounds (6.1 rpg). Against Stephen F. Austin in the first round of the Lady Pirate Invitational, Jackson netted a career-best and C-USA season best 34 points, hitting 13-of-21 shots from the floor. She has recorded 67 career double-digit games and five 30-plus point games.
Sutton is the other Pirate to average double-figures with her 11.7 points per game. She ranks second in rebounds, pulling down 6.0 per contest and leads the team in blocks (21). Against VCU, she recorded her eighth consecutive double-digit game with a career-high 20 points. Sutton has posted double-figure games in 16 of her last 21 games dating back to Cal State Fullerton (Nov. 27), when she recorded her first career double-double (14 pts. and 11 reb.) en route to being named to the Four Points LAX Turkey Shootout all tournament team. ECU's lone consistency can be found on the boards as they have equaled or out rebounded 15 of their 24 opponents on the season (942-850) and as of Feb. 14, the Pirates ranked 64th in the nation with a 3.8 rebounding margin.
About Houston: The Cougars (17-7, 7-4) dropped both of their road games last weekend falling to No. 15 DePaul, 66-78, and Marquette, 68-57. Senior Sancho Lyttle leads the team in scoring (19.0 ppg) and rebounding (12.3). She recorded her 17th and 18th double-doubles of the season, netting game-highs in scoring with 26 an 15 points. Daphane Andre is the other Cougar in double-figures with 10.6 points per game. In the last meeting between ECU and Houston, the Cougars came away with a 73-65 win on Feb. 15. Jennifer Jackson led all scorers with 25 points while Courtney Willis recorded her 24th straight double-figure game with 23 points. Former Cougar Chandi Jones led Houston with 21 points while Sancho Lyttle contributed with 18.
About TCU: The Lady Frogs (17-8, 8-3) also come into the contest having dropped their last two games to Marquette, 55-71, and No. 15 DePaul, 81-84 in overtime. TCU is lead by All-America candidate Sandora Irvin who leads the conference in scoring (20.3), rebounding (12.6) and blocks (4.7) per game. Against Memphis (Feb. 5), Irvin broke the NCAA career shots blocked record, which had stood for 14 years. She also swatted away a NCAA single-game best 16 shots against UAB. Adrianne Ross (11.8) and Ashley Davis (10.1) are the other TCU players in double-figures.
In the last meeting between ECU and TCU, the Pirates took the nationally ranked Lady Frogs to quadruple-overtime before falling 125-119. Former Pirate Courtney Willis recorded a game and career-high 40 points and 21 rebounds and set the C-USA single-season record for free throws made hitting 18-of-22. Four other Pirates scored in double-figures with Jackson collecting 29 and Cooper with 15.
