East Carolina Meets Temple in American Conference Quarterfinals
March 06, 2015 | Women's Basketball
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UNCASVILLE, Conn. - Winners in 11 of its last 14 ballgames, the fifth-seeded East Carolina women's basketball team will compete in its first American Athletic Conference tournament when it takes on No. 4 seed Temple at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., in Saturday's first quarterfinal matchup. Opening tip is scheduled for 12 noon and the game will be broadcast on ESPN3.
The Pirates and Owls met in Philadelphia just eight days prior, where Temple (16-15, 12-6 AAC) snapped ECU's six-game winning streak with a 79-69 triumph on its home floor. The matchup was the first between the two programs in history.
East Carolina (20-9, 11-7 AAC) is led by redshirt junior and All-American Athletic Conference First Team selection Jada Payne, who is averaging a team-best 16.7 points and 5.5 per game. Junior forward I'Tiana Taylor, who received American Conference Second Team and Newcomer-of-the-Year honors, is scoring 11.1 points and leads the team with 9.1 rebounds each time out. Coming off the bench, junior guard Jasmine Phillips is helping out across the stat sheet with 8.9 points on 44-percent shooting, 5.2 rebounds and nearly two steals per game.
The Pirates rank first in The American in scoring defense, yielding just 58.4 points per game, and second in offensive rebounds.They score 66.4 points per game, shoot 38.9 percent from the field and at a 34.1 clip from three-point range.
Temple is led by five players averaging double-figures points, including all-freshman team choice Alliya Butts' club-best 12.8 points per game. Erica Covile contributes 11.2 points and a team-best 8.4 rebounds per outing, as Feyonda Fitzgerald comes off the bench with 10.7 points in each contest.
The Owls shoot 36.7 percent from the field and 32 percent from beyond-the-arc on the year. Their free throw percentage is the best in the conference, connecting on 72 percent of all attempts from the line. Temple averages 66.1 points per game, but allows 65.3.
MISSION POSSIBLE: THREE-STRAIGHT 20-WIN SEASONS
In what has arguably been the program's most successful three-year run in history, East Carolina recorded its 20th victory of the season in a 67-57 defeat of UCF, which marked 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.
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 turnovers per game and have generated 20 or more in 17 of 29 contests overall. As of Tuesday, March 3, the Pirates rank fifth among NCAA Division I teams with an average of 11.8 steals per game. They totaled a season-best 24 heists against SMU on Feb. 18, while opponents have committed 20 or more turnovers in five of the last seven games.
SCORELESS STREAKS
The Pirates have imposed their defensive will on opponents this season, holding teams without a single field goal made for extremely long periods of time. ECU held Cincinnati without a basket for a span of 13:43 that covered the final four-plus minutes of the first half and more than eight minutes of the second half on Feb. 10. East Carolina then held UCF without a field goal for 11:58 between the 5:23 mark of the first half and over six-and-a-half minutes of the second period on March 2.
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 played just 13 of its 29 regular season games at home, 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 10-3 mark within its friendly confines this year and a 38-5 ledger dating back to the start of the 2012-13 campaign.
PAYNE BRINGS THE RAIN
