East Carolina University
Rice
Lady Pirates Come Up Short Against Rice
February 07, 2006 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 7, 2006
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HOUSTON, Texas - A 25-point halftime deficit was too much for the East Carolina women's basketball team to overcome as it dropped a Monday night tilt with Rice, 73-65.
The Pirates (13-8, 5-5), who trailed at the intermission 48-23, traded buckets with Rice (9-12, 5-5) to open the second half, with the Owls holding a lead of 20 or more points until Jessica Slack connected from downtown with 8:17 remaining to cut the lead to 19, 63-44. On Slack's three-point attempt, senior Catherine Coley drew a foul from Samantha Stovall and made both free throw attempts, completing a five point play.
Over the next seven minutes of play, ECU went on a 14-2 run to cut the lead to seven, 65-58 with 1:01 remaining. During that time span, the freshman trio of Jasmine Young, LaCoya Terry and Slack netted 12 of the Pirates 14 points. But Rice's Latrice Elder was on point from the charity stripe connecting on 9-of-10 attempts in the final 61 seconds for the win.
To open the game, Rice jumped out to an early 17-point lead, 25-8, behind 10 points from Lauren Neaves in the first ten minutes of play. The Preseason Conference Player-of-the-Year netted 21 at the half and finished the game with tying her career-high of 29 while grabbing 10 rebounds for her ninth double-double of the season. Fellow Owl Valeriy Berezhynaska added 10 and 17 rebounds, 16 of which came on the defensive end.
The Owls continued to hit their shots from the floor, shooting 45 percent (13-of-29) during the half to ECU's 17 percent (6-of-36) and building its lead to 27 at one point, 48-21, just before the half.
ECU's Young and Terry each recorded a team-best 15 points with Slack adding ten. Junior Cherie Mills just missed double figures for the 20th time, scoring nine points and collecting seven rebounds in 23 minutes of action. Terry also grabbed seven rebounds on the night, which was a career-high.
The game was marred by 49 fouls, and Rice had 24 turnovers, but the Pirates shot only 26 percent from the field and couldn't take advantage of the Owls' miscues. The Owls shot 38.3 percent from the field and 87.8 percent from the line, hitting a school-record 36 of 41 attempts.
ECU will return to action Friday night at Minges Coliseum when they host Memphis at 7 p.m.
