East Carolina Hosts UCF Monday for Senior Night
March 01, 2015 | Women's Basketball
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GREENVILLE, N.C. - Winners in 10 of its last 13 ballgames, the East Carolina women's basketball team will play its final road game of the regular season when it hosts UCF on Monday, March 2 for Senior Night at Williams Arena in Minges Coliseum. Opening tip is scheduled for 7 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on the American Digital Network.
The Pirates and Knights will meet for the first time since the 2012-13 campaign when both were members of Conference USA. ECU has won each of the last three meetings and owns an 11-5 lead in the all-time series, including an unblemished 8-0 mark in games played in Greenville.
East Carolina (19-9, 10-7 AAC) posted a 5-1 record in February and won six-straight games dating back to its Jan. 31 comeback at Tulane. Leading scorer and redshirt junior Jada Payne averaged a team-best 16.7 points per game last month, as redshirt senior Abria Trice scored 13.3 points to go with 2.1 steals and junior I'Tiana Taylor posted 12.2 points and 5.4 rebounds. The Pirates shot a combined 42.5 percent from the field while holding the opposition to a 36.1-percent clip.
UCF (9-19, 5-12 AAC) has lost seven of its last 10 contests, but has one of the league's top scorers in guard Zykira Lewis. The sophomore is averaging 19.3 points per game, has made 81 shots from three-point range and makes better than 81-percent of her free throws this season. Aliyah Gregory is also scoring in double figures each time out with 11.5 per game, as Brittni Montgomery tops the team in rebounding with 6.9 per night.
ON THE CUSP: THREE-STRAIGHT 20-WIN SEASONS
East Carolina is just one victory away from recording its 20th of the season, which would mark the first time in program history the Pirates have reached the 20-win plateau in three-straight seasons. ECU has posted 22 wins in back-to-back seasons after going 22-10 in 2012-13 and 22-9 in 2013-14.
TURNING UP THE DEFENSE
The Pirates completed a season sweep of Cincinnati with a 53-40 home victory on Feb. 21, but their defense had one of its best performances of the season. East Carolina committed a season-low 12 turnovers and surrendered just four offensive rebounds, resulting in just 40 shots attempted by the Bearcats, as those two totals were the fewest recorded by an ECU opponent this season.
FEELING HOME AWAY FROM HOME
The Pirates have played just 12 of its 28 games at home this season, but own a 10-6 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 9-3 mark within its friendly confines this year and a 37-5 ledger dating back to the start of the 2012-13 campaign.
PRESSURING THE ROCK & PICKING POCKETS
Defensively, ECU has used its pressure to create turnovers and transition offense. East Carolina has forced opponents into an average of 22.1 turnovers per game and have generated 20 or more in 17 of 28 contests overall. As of Tuesday, Feb. 24, the Pirates rank fifth among NCAA Division I teams with an average of 11.9 steals per game. They totaled a season-best 24 heists against SMU on Feb. 18. Opponents have committed 20 or more turnovers in four-straight games and five of the last six.
PAYNE BRINGS THE RAIN
Jada Payne broke ECU's single-season record for three-pointers made with 70 in 2013-14 and is just four 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 and two at Temple Feb. 28 to move into sixth.
