East Carolina University
-612, 05 CUSA
SMU
-108 32 CUSA
East Carolina Tripped Up At SMU, 68-44
January 22, 2012 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 22, 2012
DALLAS, Texas - East Carolina fell to SMU by a score of 68-44 Sunday at Moody Coliseum in a Conference USA contest. The Pirates drop to 6-12 overall and 0-5 in league play while the Mustangs are 10-8 and 3-2.
Junior Britny Edwards paced ECU with 12 points and six rebounds and Bryelle Smith added eight. SMU shot 46 percent from the floor for the afternoon, limiting the Pirates to 31 percent and enjoying a 39-33 advantage on the glass. The Mustangs also scored 22 points off 20 East Carolina turnovers and poured in 38 points in the paint.
The Mustangs came out of the gates quickly to start the day, building a an 11-4 lead on a three-point play by Alisha Filmore. ECU would respond however, as an Edwards layup capped a 12-7 run which made the score 18-16 at the 10:05 mark.
A mini scoring drought by the Pirates allowed SMU to stretch the advantage back to nine over the next four minutes as a Krystal Johnson free throw gave her team a 25-16 cushion with just over six minutes left in the half. The lead grew to as much as 31-20, but Bryelle Smith nailed a triple in the deep left corner at the buzzer to put the score at 31-23 heading into the break.
Edwards led the way offensively for East Carolina in the first 20 minutes, scoring six points, while Chareya Smith and Tatiana Chapple pulled down three rebounds apiece. The Mustangs hit five of their first seven shots from the field, but converted just seven field goals in 23 attempts the rest of the time to end up with a 40-percent showing. Meanwhile, ECU knocked down nine of its 24 tries, firing at a 38-percent clip. SMU also built a 21-14 rebounding edge.
Smith hit another three-pointer out of the locker room to slice the deficit to five, 31-26, but eight-straight points by the Mustangs afforded them their largest lead of the contest (39-26) at the first official timeout. The run would continue for a while and the SMU advantage grew to 20 when Filmore knocked down a free throw with 8:17 remaining in the game. The Pirates could not recover as the Mustangs kept their decisive edge for the remainder of the afternoon.
East Carolina completes its quick two-game road swing Thursday, Jan. 22, with a contest at Rice. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Tudor Fieldhouse.
