Lady Pirates Face Defending C-USA Champion UCF
January 09, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 9, 2010
ECU Women's Basketball Gameday Central
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina women's basketball team looks to improve to 3-0 in league play for the just the third time since moving to Conference USA, hosting defending champion UCF at 2 p.m. at Minges Coliseum.
Ashley Clarke paces the ECU offense, scoring 12.3 points per contest, while also averaging a C-USA second-best 5.2 assists per game. The Lady Pirates feature six players that score 7.9 or more points a contest, with Allison Spivey and Crystal Wilson producing 10.6 and 10.3 marks, respectively.
East Carolina resides in the top five of C-USA in 17 different statistical categories, including first in scoring (74.7 ppg), scoring margin (+13.9), field goal percentage (.470), three-point field goal percentage defense (.270) and rebounds allowed (33.9).
The Lady Pirates, 13-2 overall, have won six of their last seven contests and are coming off a solid 76-50 win over Southern Miss Friday. ECU won its eighth-straight home contest and is 8-0 at Minges Coliseum this season. The Lady Pirates have also won 22 of their last 27 home affairs. Additionally, East Carolina recorded its largest margin of victory in program history in a C-USA game, besting the 24-point win over Marshall this past Monday, and have now won seven games by 20 points or more this season.
Chareya Smith tallied her first career double-double, scoring 11 points to go along with a career-best matching 10 rebounds. Allison Spivey also scored in double figures, netting 15 while Jackson matched her season high with eight. In all, 12 of 13 players on the East Carolina roster scored in the contest. Clarke set a new personal best in rebounds, picking up a team second-best eight. Additionally, a quartet of Lady Pirates recorded three assists.
ECU suffered its poorest shooting effort in a win this season, converting just .361 percent from the floor, but hit 26 of 30 free throws (.867). The Lady Pirates also won the rebounding battle against a physical Golden Eagle squad 50-44, marking the second time East Carolina has corralled at least 50 rebounds this year.
The Lady Pirates displayed balance in their offense not only in the scoring column but in assists, as they distributed 17 helpers on 22 buckets. They also forced 20 Southern Miss turnovers while committing 16 themselves.
The Knights enter Sunday's tilt with a 3-7 overall record, but have played the likes of Alabama, Florida State, Washington and Notre Dame. UCF dropped its C-USA opener at Marshall 74-60 Friday.
2009-10 C-USA preseason Player-of-the-Year Emma Cannon paces the Knights with 13.3 points per contest and 9.5 rebounds a game. Marshay White is also averaging double figures in scoring with 12.6.
UCF is shooting the ball at .396 percent in 10 games but opponents are converting .449 percent of their shots. The Knights average 37.6 rebounds per game and are allowing 35.9 for a +1.7 margin.
After Sunday's affair with UCF, East Carolina embarks on a three-game league road trip through Texas, starting at Houston Jan. 15 at 8 p.m.
THE SERIES: UCF
Today's contest marks the ninth contest in a series that began in 2006, UCF's first season as a women's basketball member of Conference USA. The Lady Pirates have a 6-2 lead and have won six of the last seven meetings. Last season, the Knights won an 83-72 decision in Orlando before ECU responded with an 86-83 overtime triumph at Minges Coliseum.
HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE
East Carolina sports a 276-160 (.633) record inside Minges Coliseum since the arena opened in 1975. Last season, the squad went 12-2 (.857) at home, matching the second-most single-season home wins in program history. The Lady Pirates are 300-163 (.648) when playing in Greenville, spending their first six seasons at an on-campus alternate site while Minges was erected. ECU has been equally effective on its home court under Baldwin-Tener, having accumulated a 69-34 (.670) mark, including a 34-21 (.618) ledger against C-USA competition.
SOUTHERN MISS LEFTOVERS
The 24-point and 26-point wins over Marshall and Southern Miss marked the first time in program history that ECU has defeated two Conference USA opponents by more than 20 points in consecutive contests ... The 76 points scored against the Golden Eagles were the third-most in series history and most since Jan. 31, 2008 ... The victory represented just the third time since the Lady Pirates joined C-USA that they have started out 2-0 in league play ... All 13 players on the roster experienced game action for the fourth time this season and in the last six games ... Chareya Smith became the third ECU player to record a double-double in 2009-10.
WILSON GOES WILD
In her freshman campaign, Crystal Wilson averaged just 3.5 points per game. Now a sophomore, the Raleigh, N.C., native is one of three players averaging 10 or more points a contest, as she holds a team second-best mark of 10.5. One reason for the surge has been her recent play, as Wilson has scored 85 points in the last seven games, an average of 12.1. She has also netted double figures seven times.
KELLY COLLECTING THE THREE-BALL
After transferring from West Virginia and sitting out the required year before she could suit up for East Carolina, Kelly Smith will tell you that she is shaking off some of the rust from that long layoff. Anyone who has seen her play recently might argue that she is ready to pick up where she left off as the Lady Pirates enter conference play. In the last four contests, Smith has drilled 13 three-point field goals, including a 5-for-5 showing against Marshall in the C-USA opener.
SUPER BALANCED
While East Carolina may not have a C-USA Player-of-the-Year candidate, it can at least boast a balanced squad ... The Lady Pirates have six players averaging nearly eight or more points per game, while notably every member of the 2009-10 roster played, scored and had a rebound in the 103-59 win over Houston-Baptist. There are also five players averaging more than 20 minutes per game.
SHARING IS CARING (AND WINNING)
During the preseason, Baldwin-Tener called her 2009-10 Lady Pirates
the most unselfish team she has coached. Those words have rung true so far in the season, as ECU has recorded 251 (16.7 per game) assists to its opponents' 185. Additionally, the squad is 11-1 this season when recording more helpers than its opponent. The Lady Pirates are just ahead of last year's pace when the team ranked second in C-USA, averaging 16.19 assists per contest.
PICK-POCKETING THE COMPETITION
Lady Pirate opponents might want to secure the ball better from this point forward, as ECU is averaging 11 steals in 15 games. The Lady Pirates recorded 21 of them against Houston-Baptist and 16 in a home contest vs. Western Carolina.
NICE NON-CONFERENCE NOTE
East Carolina has always regarded non-conference games as a chance to get better before heading into the rigors of C-USA play. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that the Lady Pirates have recently excelled in those affairs. In its last 26 non-league games, ECU has produced a record of 20-6 (.769). Four of the six losses, to VCU, North Carolina A&T, Virginia and Marist, occurred during the 2008-09 season and all four teams qualified for the NCAA Tournament.
BENCH IS NOT BAD
It seems like the Lady Pirate bench gets deeper with each passing season and is an extension of the starting five. There is some truth to that statement, as East Carolina's bench has outscored its opponents' benches in 38 of the last 46 games and all but two this season.
FIRING AT 50
The Lady Pirates are enjoying another great shooting season, firing at a .470 clip in 14 contests. ECU has shot 50 percent or above in seven games, including two games reaching the 60-percent plateau.
UP NEXT FOR THE LADY PIRATES
After today's battle with UCF, the Lady Pirates hit the road through Texas for three-straight games, starting Friday Jan. 15 at Houston. The swing will also take them to Rice and SMU. ECU dropped a tough 66-65 result against the Cougars in Minges Coliseum last season while defeating Rice easily, 79-54. The C-USA regular season champion Mustangs took both meetings between the schools last year, winning 80-73 in Dallas during the regular season, before knocking off the eighth-seeded Lady Pirates, 77-69, in the league tournament quarterfinals.
