Pirate Women's Basketball Recaps Exciting Alumni Day
February 25, 2016 | Women's Basketball
By Collin Loy
ECU Athletics Media Relations
Pirates from all around set their sails for Greenville last weekend. Head coach Heather Macy and the East Carolina women's basketball team held their annual Alumni Game on Saturday, Feb. 20 at the Smith-Williams Center.
Surrounded by family, friends and current women's basketball players, alumni participated in a scrimmage. The game was only a small part of the alumni festivities as the team hosted a shoot-around with alumni before taking on the top-ranked UConn Huskies that night, along with a get-together following the game.
The alumni game itself came down to the wire, after the purple team forced overtime at the end of regulation. With the game on the line, purple's Gaynor O'Donnell hit a game-winning layup as time expired to lift her team to a 39-38 victory.
"I think I [hit a game-winning shot] once in my whole career at Appalachian [State] on their Senior Night," O'Donnell said. "We drew up a play, and I wasn't supposed to shoot it, but the ball ended up in my hands with a second to go and I launched it, and that was my only buzzer-beater in my career; and it was an accident."
O'Donnell graduated from ECU in 1993, and achieved a variety of accolades while playing for the Pirates. She set the all-time record for assists with 833 and the season record at 300 during the 1992-93 campaign. O'Donnell also set the single game record for assists with 20 against UNC Asheville in 1992. As a senior, she would go on to lead the nation in assists, averaging 10.7 per game and finish with 1,015 career points, becoming the 14th player to achieve 1,000 career points.
"It's a phenomenal weekend," O'Donnell explained. "Coach Macy and her staff have really brought it alive again, because we didn't have it for a long time, and I look forward to it every year. It's just an amazing event for everybody, to get together and see all my teammates, past and present, play. It's just a really good connecting event for me."
On the other side of the court, LaCoya Terry played as the most recent graduate, graduating in the class of 2009.
"Well, it's not really too recent, six years is a long time, but it's exciting, it's good to come back," Terry said. "It's like my second home so it really felt good."
Terry signed with the Pirates in 2005, and would go on to accomplish a decorated career. She ranks as the fourth leading scorer in ECU history with 1,648 career points. Additionally, Terry ranks eighth in three-point baskets made with 104 and was named the 2007 Conference USA Tournament MVP.
When asked about her favorite part of the alumni festivities, Terry spoke about catching up with her former teammates.
"The fellowship [is my favorite part]," Terry added. "With seeing my old teammates, I haven't seen them in a while, just seeing the older players before me, and seeing how nice the new facilities are."
Furthermore, these Pirates are new to the facilities that have been added here like the Smith-Williams Practice Center, which was completed in 2013.
"It is awesome," 1990 graduate Irish Hamilton said. "We never would have thought we would have had a practice facility, but everything is beautiful: the locker rooms, the practice facilities, the coach's offices. It's nice to see how far it's come."
Wearing number 13, Hamilton led the team in assists in the 1989 and 1990 seasons, along with steals. She was also named to the 1990 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) All-Defensive Team.
The weekend provided an opportunity for players of past and present to represent ECU, while still having fun on the court.
"It was fun when we played here and coming back now is like we never left," Hamilton added. "We jumped right back in to where we left off."
