Pirates Challenge No. 1 Huskies in American Conference Semis
March 08, 2015 | Women's Basketball
March 8, 2015
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
UNCASVILLE, Conn. - Winners in eight of its last nine and 12 of its last 15 ballgames, the fifth-seeded East Carolina women's basketball team will face the No. 1 team in the country for the first time in more than 12 years when it takes on top-seeded UConn Sunday, March 8 in the semifinals of the 2015 American Athletic Conference Championship. Opening tip is scheduled for 5:30 p.m., and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
The Pirates and Huskies met twice during the regular season, the first two meetings between the two programs on the hardwood, as Connecticut collected a pair of wins. The last time ECU faced the No. 1 ranked team in the country was Nov. 22, 2002 at Duke.
East Carolina (21-9, 11-7 AAC) avenged fifth-seeded Temple, 77-71, in Saturday's quarterfinals behind 22 points by junior Jada Payne, a double-double comprising 11 points and 11 rebounds by junior I'Tiana Taylor. Junior Jasmine Phillips compiled 15 points, five boards, four assists and three blocks in 30 minutes off the bench, while senior Abria Trice scored 13 points to go with six boards in a game the Pirates never trailed.
UConn (30-1, 18-0) defeated Cincinnati, 93-34, in its quarterfinal contest, where six Huskies scored in double figures. Conference Player-of-the-Year Breanna Stewart tallied 13 points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three blocks and all-conference first team choice Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis scored a game-high 18 points. Connecticut is scoring 89 points per game this season and winning by an average of nearly 43 points.
TWO EARN ALL-AMERICAN ATHLETIC CONFERENCE HONORS
With the announcement of the 2015 All-American Athletic Conference teams, junior Jada Payne received first team honors while junior I'Tiana Taylor was tabbed to the second team. Taylor was also named the league's Newcomer-of-the-Year, as Payne became just the third player in program history to earn first team recognition multiple times, joining Sarah Gray (1989-90) and Tonya Hargrove (1990-92).
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 18 of 30 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 six of the last eight 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 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.
