East Carolina Women's Basketball Travels to Cleveland State
December 04, 2014 | Women's Basketball
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GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina will head to the state of Ohio for a pair of road games, with the first one coming on Thursday, Dec. 4 at Cleveland State. Opening tip is scheduled for 7 p.m., at the Wolstein Center and will be televised on ESPN3.
The Pirates and Vikings will meet for the second straight year and the third time overall, as ECU improved to 2-0 in the all-time series after defeating Cleveland State (3-3), 75-66, in Greenville last season. East Carolina (6-1) will then travel to Athens, Ohio to face Ohio University (6-0) on Saturday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m.
ECU split a pair of games at the Junkanoo Jam in Freeport, Bahamas last week where it fell, 69-58, to 22nd-ranked Syracuse, before defeating Wisconsin, 61-43, the following day.
Redshirt junior guard/forward Jada Payne leads the Pirates in scoring at 17.1 points per game and is shooting an impressive 45.5 percent from the floor, 48.7 from the 3-point line and 91.7 from the free throw line this season. Junior forward I'Tiana Taylor ranks second on the team in scoring with 12.6 points per game, and leads the squad with 9.3 rebounds per game. She has grabbed at least eight rebounds in six of her first seven appearances.
PICKING POCKETS
The Pirates entered the week beginning Monday, Dec. 1 ranked sixth in the nation in steals per game with an average of 15.1. They totaled 21 steals in the season-opening win over Fairfield,and have recorded 12 or more in six of their seven games this season.
COUNTDOWN TO 200
Head coach Heather Macy, in her 10th season as a head coach and fifth at ECU, entered the season with 187-career wins and is now just seven victories away from 200 for her career.
BLOCKBUSTER
Senior post player Ondrea Shaw tied her career-high with seven blocked shots in the 66-38 blowout of Rhode Island on Nov. 15. She also posted seven blocks at Bethune Cookman on Dec. 29, 2013. Shaw established herself among the nation's top shot-blockers at 3.26 per game, in 2013-14, which ranked ninth. Her 120 rejections are 29 behind Monique Pompili (1984-88) for second place and just 92 behind Marcia Girven's (1977-81) school record of 212.
BIG TEN BUSTER
East Carolina defeated Wisconsin, 61-43, in the third place game of the Lucaya Division at the Junkanoo Jam in The Bahamas on Nov. 28. The victory was its first over a Big Ten Conference member since beating Michigan State, 76-72, on Feb. 28, 1982.
TAYLOR TIME
East Carolina junior forward I'Tiana Taylor began the season as one of the team's best bench players, grabbing eight or more rebounds in four of the first five games. She earned her first-career start against No. 22 Syracuse at the Junkanoo Jam in The Bahamas and scored a career-high and game-high 22 points on 9-for-14 shooting with eight rebounds and three steals. The following day, against Wisconsin, Taylor scored 13 points and pulled down a career-high 17 boards in the 61-43 victory.
