Lady Pirates Battle Top-Seeded Tulane
March 10, 2010 | Women's Basketball
March 10, 2010
ECU Women's Basketball Gameday Central
Updated C-USA Tournament Statistics
TULSA, Okla. - The fifth-seeded East Carolina women's basketball team faces off against regular season champion and No. 1 seed Tulane Wednesday in the first semifinal of the 2010 GMC Sierra Conference USA Women's Basketball Championship at the Reynolds Center.
The Lady Pirates used a 19-7 run over the last six minutes of the game to post a 73-66 win over No. 4 seed Memphis Tuesday and advance to the semifinals. The Green Wave posted a 56-51 victory over ECU at Minges Coliseum earlier this season and lead the overall series 7-3.
Conference USA Newcomer of the Year and first-team all-league honoree Brittany Carter scored a game-high 29 points for Memphis, but the Lady Pirates countered with a balanced offensive attack that saw five players score at least nine points, including a 14-point, 10-rebound and two-block performance by sophomore Jean Best - her first double-double of the season.
With the win, ECU improves to 22-9. The Tigers, meanwhile, fall to 17-13. Additionally, the victory matched the second-most single-season wins for the Lady Pirates as the 1980-81 squad posted a 22-7 final ledger.
While Best paced East Carolina in scoring, Kelly Smith was next with 10 points while Gay, Ashley Clarke and Shuanda Ashford tallied nine each. Clarke had five of the Lady Pirates' 16 assists and four of the squad's six steals.
ECU shot 50 (25-for-50) percent from the floor in the contest, marking the 13th time this season it has reached the 50-percent plateau. The Lady Pirates also won the battle on the glass, 40-36. Not to be lost in the hot shooting from the field was a 17-for-20 performance from the charity stripe.
