Gameday: East Carolina Hosts Maryland Eastern Shore Sunday Afternoon

Game 10: East Carolina vs. Maryland Eastern Shore
Date	Sunday, Dec. 4
Time	1:00 p.m. (ET)
Location	Greenville, N.C. (Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum)
Coverage	Live Stats \\\ Watch Live \\\ WZMB Radio \\\ East Carolina Game Notes
Social Media	Twitter: @ECUScoreboard \\\ @ECUWomensHoops \\\ #ECUndaunted \\\ #2FTN

GREENVILLE, N.C. – East Carolina looks to rebound from its first road loss of the season, hosting Maryland Eastern Shore Sunday at 1 p.m. inside Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

The game is the sixth home contest of the campaign for the Pirates who are 4-1 thus far in Greenville. In fact, ECU has won 23 of its last 24 non-conference home games with its lone blemish a 61-52 setback to current No. 23 Auburn back on Nov. 20.

For Starters
Head Coach Heather Macy is in her seventh season leading the Pirates, who have averaged just shy of 20 wins per year since the start of the 2012-13 campaign. ECU returns four players from its 2015-16 roster and welcomes eight newcomers, including four freshmen.

Scouting the Hawks
Maryland Eastern Shore enters the contest with a 3-2 record following a 60-53 home victory over UNC Greensboro Nov. 29. The Hawks also have wins over Cheyney and UMBC as well as losses to Maryland and NC State. Ciani Byrom leads the offensive efforts with a 13.2 points per game average while Moengaro Subritzky is putting up 9.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per contest in two games played. Collectively, MDES is averaging 64.8 points and 40.6 rebounds per game and is shooting the ball at a 37.6 percent clip from the field. The Hawks have struggled to convert from the free throw line, hitting just 59.4 percent (60 of 101) of their tries. Fred Batchelor is in his 13th season as the head coach at Maryland Eastern Shore and is the winningest head coach in program history, compiling 153 victories at the helm. The Hawks were picked to finish fourth in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in the preseason coaches and sports information directors poll and received two first-place votes.

The Series
East Carolina won the only previous meeting with Maryland Eastern Shore, defeating the Hawks 59-37 at Minges Coliseum back on Dec. 19, 1999.

Last Time Out
East Carolina fell to Charlotte 79-64 in its first road game of the season Thursday night inside Halton Arena. Redshirt junior forward Gabrielle Holston paced the Pirates with 12 points while junior center Thais Oliveira grabbed a team-best nine rebounds (six offensive). Redshirt senior forwards Bre McDonald and Kristen Gaffney pulled down eight rebounds apiece while McDonald added 10 points. Charlotte knocked down 32 of its 69 attempts from the field to end up with a 46.4 percent shooting performance. ECU hit 25 shots out of 67 for 37.3 percent. The Pirates had the better of the rebounding battle, corralling 44 boards to the 49ers' 41. East Carolina notched 15 offensive rebounds that led to 11 second chance points. The ECU bench also out-scored the home team's reserves 26-6.

Macy Ascending On ECU All-Time Coaching Wins List
Heather Macy now owns the second-most wins by a head coach in program history. With 14 more victories, she will surpass Sharon Baldwin-Tener (2002-10), who tops the list with 126.

Holston Nominated For NABC Good Works Team
Holston was named a nominee for the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Good Works Team. The Allstate NABC and WBCA Good Works Teams® recognizes players at all levels of college basketball whose charitable involvement and altruistic acts stand out amongst all other student-athletes participating in the sport.

Gaffney Gets #Buckets
Through games of Dec. 1, Gaffney ranks second nationally in field goals made at 67, trailing only Kelsey Plum of Washington (77). She also sits 14th in total points (149) and 26th in field goal percentage (.604). Additionally, Gaffney places among the top three American Athletic Conference players in each of the three categories.

Bannister Comes Up Clutch
East Carolina has played in some tight games early on this season, building a 3-0 record when the margin of victory is five points or less. Redshirt senior guard Antoinette Bannister is a big reason for this success as she has drained some big shots for the Purple and Gold. She drained a triple with eight seconds left against Detroit to send the game into overtime before hitting three free throws with 10 seconds on the clock versus Marist to give ECU the win by two points. Bannister also canned a huge three with two seconds remaining against Ball State to force overtime where East Carolina out-scored the Cardinals 19-6 in the extra period.

Educate Me
This year's Education Day brought a crowd of 4,958 to Minges Coliseum. That number stands as the second highest in facility history for a women's basketball game.

1. Nov. 20, 2015 - 5,408 vs. Presbyterian
2. Nov. 15, 2016 - 4,958 vs. UNC Wilmington
3. Dec. 31, 2014 - 4,706 vs. Connecticut
4. Jan. 30, 1981 - 4,500 vs. USC
5. Feb. 5, 1981 - 4,240 vs. North Carolina

Gaffney Named AAC Player of the Week
Gaffney was named the first American Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Player-of-the-Week for the 2016-17 season on Monday, Nov. 14, becoming the first Pirate to receive the conference's top weekly honor since Jada Payne on Dec. 15, 2014. She averaged 27.5 points, seven rebounds and 4.5 steals while shooting 24-for-35 (.686) from the field in a 2-0 week for the Pirates.
Remember the Titans
Gaffney had a career day in just her second game as a Pirate by scoring 32 points on 15-for-23 shooting to go along with eight rebounds in an 83-81 (OT) win over the Detroit-Mercy Titans on Nov. 13. Her scoring (32), field goals made (15) and shot attempts (23) all marked personal bests.

Three Me
ECU has made at least one three-point basket in 210 consecutive games. The last time the Pirates did not make at least one was Feb. 6, 2010 at UCF. In the last two seasons, East Carolina has held three different opponents without a conversion from beyond the arc:

Dec. 19, 2014 - Loyola-Maryland (0-12)
Nov. 17, 2015 - Alcorn State (0-8)
Feb. 29, 2016 - SMU (0-7)

Pirates Picked Sixth In AAC Preseason Poll
ECU was picked to finish sixth in the American Athletic Conference for the 2016-17 season according to a preseason poll of the league's head coaches. Connecticut was chosen as the unanimous preseason favorite with 100 points, ahead of Temple in second place (87) and USF in third (86). Tulane accumulated 73 points for fourth place, while SMU rounded out the top five with 50. East Carolina received 49 points in the poll and was ranked ahead of Memphis (47), UCF (41), Tulsa (33), Cincinnati (23) and Houston (16).

Top-50 Signing Class Arrives
Freshmen Dominique Claytor, Alexis Cortez, Raven Johnson and junior Thais Oliveira, signed National Letters of Intent to play for the Pirates in November 2015, comprising the No. 49 overall class nationally, according to the Dan Olsen Collegiate Girls Basketball Report. The quarter marked ECU's first top-50 signing class in program history.

Pirates in the Community
ECU Women's Basketball players have logged more than 400 hours of community service so far this year and have accumulated over 500 hours each of the last several seasons. They have put in time at the Cypress Glen Retirement Community, The Boys and Girls Club of Pitt County and Elmhurst Elementary School among many others.

Up Next
East Carolina will take an extended break for exams before returning to the court Saturday, Dec. 17 at Richmond in a 4 p.m. tipoff inside the Robbins Center.

Gameday: East Carolina Hosts Maryland Eastern Shore Sunday Afternoon

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Players Mentioned

Antoinette Bannister

Dominique Claytor

Alexis Cortez

Kristen Gaffney

Gabrielle Holston

Raven Johnson

Bre McDonald

Thais Oliveira

Jada Payne

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