East Carolina Hosts No. 25 USF in Annual Play4Kay Game
February 13, 2015 | Women's Basketball
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GREENVILLE, N.C. - East Carolina will face its fourth ranked opponent of the season and puts a three-game winning streak on the line when it hosts No. 25 South Florida in American Athletic Conference action Sunday, Feb. 15 in its annual Play4Kay game. Opening tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m., at Williams Arena in Minges Coliseum, and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
Kay Yow, an East Carolina University alum and former North Carolina State women's basketball coach, was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1987 and passed away in 2009. Since its inception in 2007, the Play4Kay initiative has raised over $2.5 million to support women's cancer research. All fans are encouraged to wear pink to Sunday's game and can receive $2 admission at the ticket window for wearing the color.
The Bulls survived a late push by the Pirates to claim a 69-62 victory in the conference opener on Dec. 28 at the Sun Dome in Tampa, Fla., but ECU leads the all-time series, 5-2, as USF will make its first trip to Greenville since the 2003-04 campaign.
East Carolina (16-8, 7-6 AAC) has won three-straight and seven of its last 10 games, and is led by preseason All-American Athletic Conference choice Jada Payne's 16.8 points per game and 43.3-percent field goal and three-point percentages, respectively. Junior forward I'Tiana Taylor is averaging close to a double-double with 10.9 points and 9.9 rebounds per contest, as redshirt senior wing player Abria Trice is scoring 18.3 points at a 59.4-percent clip from the floor during the team's three-game winning streak.
Senior point guard Janesha Ebron is averaging a conference-best 4.7 assists in league games this year, as Payne tops the charts in free throw percentage at 93.2
USF (20-4, 11-1 AAC) is riding a six-game winning streak and has won 14 of its last 15 ballgames. The Bulls are led by junior guard Courtney Williams' league-leading 20.3 points per game, while she also averages 8.1 rebounds 3.3 assists. Junior forward Alisia Jenkins scored 12 points per contest and leads the conference in rebounding at 11.3 to complement a 54.6-percent field goal percentage.
KEY MATCHUPS TO WATCH
The low-post game will offer a matchup between The American's top two rebounders in Taylor for ECU and Jenkins for USF. At guard, two of the conference's top five scorers, Jada Payne (fifth) and Courtney Williams (first), will go head-to-head as both are shooting over 40 percent from the field and beyond the three-point arc. The Bulls (.295) and Pirates (.301) both defend the perimeter very well, ranking third and fourth, respectively, in three-point field goal percentage defense in conference games this season. The two squads stand second and third in the league in rebounding margin.
FEELING AT HOME AWAY FROM HOME
The Pirates have played just nine of its first 24 games at home this season, but own a 10-5 overall record in games played away from Minges Coliseum. Eight of its first 13 American Athletic Conference contests were played on the road where they posted a 5-3 mark. ECU possesses a 6-3 mark within its friendly confines this year and a 34-5 ledger dating back to the start of the 2012-13 campaign.
PAYNE CLOSING IN ON 1,000 POINTS
Redshirt junior wing player Jada Payne has scored 971 points in just 55-career games at East Carolina, and with 29 more, will become just the 22nd player in program history to eclipse 1,000. Allison Spivey (2007-11) was the last to break the threshold and ranks 20th all-time with 1,043.
DEFYING THE ODDS
The Pirates claimed a 78-53 win at Cincinnati on Feb. 10 despite trailing at halftime, losing the turnover battle and allowing the opposition to make more than five shots from three-point range. The victory was ECU's first when trailing at halftime in seven total occurrences this season and entered the night just 3-6 when having more turnovers and 3-5 when allowing five or more threes.
NELSON NETTING BIG SHOTS
Senior forward Shae Nelson is hitting big shots at a high percentage during East Carolina's three-straight conference wins. The Cordova, Tenn., native is shooting 45.5 percent (15-for-33) overall from the field and 50 percent (11-for-22) from three-point range to boost her 15.7 points per game during that span. She knocked down a pair of threes inside the final four minutes, the second a go-ahead conversion to cap off a 14-2 scoring run, in ECU's 67-63 comeback triumph over the Green Wave on Jan. 31. Nelson then scored a game-high 18 points against Houston on Feb. 3 before dropping 16 points at Cincinnati on Feb. 10 and shot 4-for-7 from beyond the arc in each game, respectively.
THE TRICE FACTOR
Redshirt senior Abria Trice has scored 16 points in back-to-back wins over Tulane and Houston and poured in a season-high 23 points on nine made field goals to down Cincinnati. She has also been a primary go-to option, scoring the Pirates' last two baskets in the final minute of the 67-63 triumph over the Green Wave on Jan. 31, and shot a perfect 8-for-8 at the free throw line against the Cougars.
EBRON CLIMBING ALL-TIME ASSISTS LIST
Senior point guard Janesha Ebron cracked the top 10 of the program's all-time assists list with five in the win at Tulsa on Jan. 14. She passed Delphine Mabry (1982-87) who had 291 for her career, and with five more dimes in the win at SMU on Jan. 21, became the 10th player to record 300 in a career. With two more helpers, Ebron will move into sole possession of ninth place all-time.
PAYNE BRINGS THE RAIN
Jada Payne broke ECU's single-season record for three-pointers made with 70 in 2013-14 and is just nine away from breaking her own record this season. With three triples at Cleveland State on Dec. 4, she moved into eighth place on the program's all-time list, and after making four more in the win at Loyola Maryland on Dec. 9, Payne became the eighth player in program history to make 100 shots from beyond the arc in her career. She made one triple against No. 2 UConn on Dec. 31 to move into seventh place.
