Lady Pirates Begin Homestand Against UTEP
February 11, 2010 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 11, 2010
East Carolina Women's Basketball Gameday Central
Complete Game Notes in PDF Format
GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina women's basketball team kicks off its last homestand of the season Thursday night, playing host to UTEP at 7 p.m. at Minges Coliseum.
The Lady Pirates look to snap a two-game skid and keep pace at the top of the Conference USA standings. ECU (17-6, 6-4) is just a half-game behind co-leaders Tulane (17-5, 6-3), Memphis (13-9, 6-3) and Houston (12-10, 6-3). The Lady Pirates hold the tiebreaker over the Tigers and Cougars, having beaten each team earlier this season. East Carolina will play the Green Wave Saturday at Minges in what shapes up to be a critical showdown.
With a victory over Memphis Jan. 30, the Lady Pirates set a school record with their 11th-straight home victory. ECU has also won 23 of its last 25 affairs at Minges Coliseum and is 5-0 in league home games in 2009-10.
In road games at Southern Miss and UCF last weekend, the Lady Pirates got off to slow starts in each contest and could not recover, falling 59-55 to the Golden Eagles and 60-50 to the Knights. Freshman Ariana Jackson scored a career-high 13 points against Southern Miss while junior Kim Gay notched team-high totals of 14 points and seven rebounds in the tilt with UCF. Despite the setbacks, ECU still has produced its best 10-game C-USA record (6-4) since joining the league before the 2001-02 campaign.
Sophomore Ashley Clarke paces the Lady Pirate league-leading offense with 12.4 points per game while junior Allison Spivey also averages double figures at 11.2 a contest. It is a balanced attack with three other players putting in at least 7.4 points per game. Gay leads the team on the glass, pulling down 5.6 rebounds over 23 appearances.
East Carolina also leads the conference in field goal percentage, shooting 47.1 percent. It should prove to be an interesting matchup with the Miners, who are second in the league in field goal percentage defense and allow just 36.2 percent shooting by its opponents. The Lady Pirates own a healthy rebounding margin of +4.6 while UTEP gets slightly outrebounded by 1.6 per contest. Thursday's affair also features the top two teams in C-USA in terms of three-point field goal percentage, as ECU holds the slight edge 37.7 to 37.3.
Jareica Hughes, the two-time defending C-USA Player-of-the-Year, leads the Miners with 12.6 points per game while two other UTEP players average double-digit points in Anete Steinberga (11.8) and Dietra Caldwell (11.4). Steinberga is the top rebounder for Thursday's visitors, corralling 7.9 per contest.
The Miners enter the weekend with some confidence, having defeated SMU (71-61) and Tulsa (75-58) in consecutive games last weekend at home. UTEP has split its last four affairs.
THE SERIES: UTEP
Today's contest marks the fifth in a series that began in 2006, UTEP's first season as a member of Conference USA. The Lady Pirates have a 3-1 lead but the teams have split the last two meetings. ECU defeated the Miners last season in Greenville, 73-43.
HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE
East Carolina sports a 279-160 (.636) 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 303-163 (.650) 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 72-34 (.679) mark, including a 37-21 (.638) ledger against C-USA competition.
THE AFTERMATH: UCF
East Carolina dropped to 7-3 all-time against UCF and 2-3 at the UCF Arena ... The Lady Pirates failed to score at least 60 points in consecutive games for the first time this season ... ECU outshot the Knights .404-.373 from the field and still has not allowed an opponent to reach the 50-percent plateau in 2009-10 ... Kim Gay led the Lady Pirates in both scoring (14 points) and rebounding (seven boards) ... East Carolina used all 12 eligible players on the roster in the contest ... The Lady Pirates fell to 0-2 this season when facing teams they had beaten earlier in the campaign - East Carolina bested Southern Miss 76-50 while taking care of UCF 73-62 at Minges Coliseum ... The Lady Pirates are now just 2-11 in their last 13 C-USA road contests ... With the loss, ECU fell back into sole possession of fourth-place in the league standings, a half-game ahead of UTEP, SMU and Rice.
TAKING STOCK AFTER ALL THESE YEARS
Despite dropping a pair of contests on the road this past weekend, the Lady Pirates are still off to their best-ever C-USA start through 10 games at 6-4. ECU has produced a trio of 5-5 ledgers in the 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2006-07 seasons. The Lady Pirates have also been 4-6 three times - in the 2005-06, 2007-08 and 2008-09 campaigns.
NOT IN MINGES
The Lady Pirates are known for getting it done at Minges Coliseum, having won 23 of their last 25 games at the facility. After leading Conference USA in attendance last season and ranking 86th nationally with an average crowd of 1,602, East Carolina has brought in a total of 19,503 fans through the turnstiles in its 11 appearances.
INTO THE WEST
When comparing the Lady Pirate record against the East and West schools in Conference USA, there lies a striking contrast. Since joining the league, East Carolina is 40-27 (.597) versus its East neighbors and just 15-26 (.366) against the West. So far in 2009-10, the Lady Pirates have picked up wins over all five of the East members and Houston from the West while dropping decisions to West foes Rice and SMU as well as East rivals Southern Miss and UCF.
UP NEXT FOR THE LADY PIRATES
After hosting UTEP, the Lady Pirates stay at home for a Saturday matinee against Tulane. The contest is being held in conjunction with the WBCA PinkZone(TM) effort as well as the NCAA Pack the House Competiton. The Green Wave stole a 72-69 decision in New Orleans last season when Indira Kaljo hit a three-pointer at the buzzer.
