East Carolina Meets Tulsa in Conference Clash Wednesday Night
January 13, 2015 | Women's Basketball
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GREENVLLE, N.C. - The East Carolina women's basketball team will play on the road for the third time in its last four conference games when it heads to Tulsa for a mid-week American Athletic Conference matchup at 8 p.m. (EST). The game will be broadcast and available free on the American Digitial Network.
The Pirates and Golden Hurricane are familiar foes as the two schools have faced off each of the last 10 seasons. ECU and Tulsa are two of the three new full-time members of The American this season after previously competing in Conference USA.
East Carolina (10-6, 1-4 AAC) is led by Jada Payne's 17.4 points and 6.1 rebounds, and is making 3-pointers at a 44.3-percent clip. Her 91.9-percent free throw average ranks first among all players in the conference. Junior forward I'Tiana Taylor is scoring 11.1 points and grabbing 9.7 boards per game, while averaging 9.8 points and 12 rebounds through five league contests.
Tulsa (7-8, 2-2 AAC) is coming off a 79-69 win over Memphis on Saturday and has three players averaging double-figure points, led by Ashley Clark's 13.2, while Mariah Turner and Kelsee Grovey average 12.2 and 10.6, respectively. The Golden Hurricane leads The American in free throw percentage (.705) and ranks second in scoring offense (69.3), while its 42.9-percent field goal clip is also second in the league, trailing only UConn. Tulsa is vulnerable on the defensive end of the floor, standing last in scoring defense (68.5) and field goal percentage defense (.451) among all American Conference teams.
ECU claimed first win as a member of the American Athletic Conference on Saturday, Jan. 10 in an 87-46 victory at Houston. Redshirt junior Jada Payne scored 22 of her season-high 26 points in the first half on 8-for-8 shooting, including 5-for-5 from 3-point range, while junior guard Jasmine Phillips recorded her first-career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Senior point guard Janesha Ebron posted season highs in rebounds and assists with eight, respectively. Her 288-career assists rank 11th in program history and with four more, will pass Delphine Mabry (1982-87) and claim sole possession of 10th place on the all-time list.
all over the O-boards
East Carolina has pulled down 20 or more offensive rebounds in eight of its first 16 games this season and in four of its last six heading into Wednesday's contest. The Pirates currently rank fifth among all NCAA Division I programs with 18 offensive boards per game.
PRESSURING THE ROCK
Defensively, ECU has used its intense pressure on the ball to reduce the opposition's number of possessions. East Carolina has forced opponents into an average of 23.3 turnovers per game and have generated 20 or more in five of the last seven contests and 11 of 16 overall.
PICKING POCKETS
The Pirates enter the week beginning Monday, Jan. 12 ranked seventh among NCAA Division I teams with an average of 12.6 steals per game. They totaled 21 steals in the season-opening win over Fairfield, and have recorded 12 or more in 10 of 16 games this season.
TOP SWAT TEAM
ECU currently sits in third place for the most blocks per game (6.9) among NCAA Division I teams. East Carolina rejected 10 or more shots in three-straight games in December, a streak that began with 15 blocked shots in the 82-33 win at Loyola Maryland on Dec. 9, and matched the program record initially set on Jan. 18, 1975 against Elon.
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 three victories away from 200 for her career.
30+ buckets
The Pirates have made 30 field goals on four different occasions this season, extending an almost habitual streak Heather Macy's teams have achieved. In each of Macy's five seasons, East Carolina has had at least a trio of 30-field goal performances each year and owns a 17-2 record when reaching that benchmark. Most recently, ECU made 31 shots in an 87-46 win at Houston, after making 33 in its 82-33 drubbing of Loyola Maryland on Dec. 9. Two weeks prior, ECU made 30 against Delaware on Nov. 21, and 32 against Fairfield in the season opener on Nov. 14.
A PAIR OF RARE HOME DEFEATS
East Carolina, which posted 32-2 home record between 2012 and 2014, suffered back-to-back home losses to No. 2 Connecticut and Tulane in its first two American Athletic Conference league games, marking the first time since the 2011-12 season that the visitors left Minges Coliseum with consecutive victories.
TAYLOR tURNS UP
Junior forward I'Tiana Taylor had a monster performance against Tulane on Jan. 7, scoring a career-high 23 points and pulling down a personal-best 19 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season and second in as many games. The Pflugerville, Texas native is averaging 11.3 points, 13 rebounds and three steals through the first four conference games of the year.
THREE PIRATES SUSPENDED INDEFINITELY
Two Pirate point guards, senior Akia Jones and junior Khadijah Ellison, as well as senior post player Ondrea Shaw, were suspended indefinitely for violations of team rules prior to ECU's Jan. 10 road game at Houston. Shaw is one of the nation's leading shot-blockers at 3.2 per game, while that total also ranks second in the conference. Jones has made six appearances this season, while Ellison played in 13 of the team's first 15 games, averaging 1.8 points, 1.7 rebounds and 1.2 steals.
