GAMEDAY: Women's Basketball vs. No. 1/1 Connecticut

Game 21: East Carolina vs. No 1/1 Connecticut
Date	Tuesday, Jan. 24
Time	7:00 p.m. (ET)
Location	Greenville, N.C. (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 (10-10, 1-6 AAC) hosts No. 1/1 Connecticut (18-0, 6-0 AAC) Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. inside Minges Coliseum. It marks the eighth meeting between the two in the last three seasons. Connecticut is 7-0 all-time versus the Pirates after a 90-45 win over ECU earlier this season. The game will be broadcast on SNY/ESPN3 with Eric Frede and Meg Culmo on the call.

The Pirates look to snap a four-game losing streak Tuesday against the No. 1 team in the country. East Carolina's Bre McDonald had a career-high 27 points against Cincinnati in the Purple and Gold's most recent game, a 10-point loss Saturday night while Antoinette Bannister scored 11 points and made a trio of three-pointers.

Last time the two met, Connecticut defeated East Carolina 90-45 at the XL Center in Hartford, Conn., on January 4.

Scouting the Huskies
Connecticut rides an NCAA-record 93-game win streak entering Tuesday night's match up inside Minges. The Huskies have won the last four NCAA national championships and are ranked No. 1 in both the AP and USA Today Coaches' Poll with an 18-0 record this season. The Huskies lead the American Athletic Conference in 11 statistical categories including offense (84.9) and field goal percentage (.519). Connecticut is led by Katie Lou Samuelson who's averaging 21.9 points per game. Napheesa Collier and Gabby Williams both average 8.2 rebounds per game, tied for fourth in the AAC this season. The Huskies are outscoring Top-25 opponents by 22.1 points per game and throttled No. 20/21 USF by their largest margin of victory, 65, on January 10 in their record-breaking 91st-straight win.

The Series
Tuesday night marks the eight time the two meet in program history. East Carolina has been Connecticut's most common opponent in the last three seasons (8 games) with USF closely behind with seven games. The Bulls will face Connecticut later on this season for the eighth time as well. The Huskies lead the series 7-0 and have held East Carolina to less than 50 points in all five regular season contests.
Last Time Out (Jan. 21)
Bre McDonald scored a career-high 27 points in East Carolina's 74-64 road loss to Cincinnati Saturday afternoon. She shot an impressive 13-for-18 (.722) from the field in the loss and led all scorers. Additionally, she dished out four assists and had seven rebounds.

Collectively, East Carolina shot 40.8 percent from the field and was slightly edged by Cincinnati 36-34 on the backboards. Antoinette Bannister snapped a three-game streak without a three-pointer to hit three treys as the Pirates' second-leading scorer with 11 points. Kristen Gaffney was third on the team with 10 points and a team-leading seven rebounds while Alex Frazier had a season-high six assists to lead all players in helpers.

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 11 more victories, she will surpass Sharon Baldwin-Tener (2002-10), who tops the list with 127.

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.

Bannister Comes Up Clutch
East Carolina played in some tight games early on this season, building a 4-0 record when the margin of victory is five points or less. Redshirt senior guard Antoinette Bannister was a big reason for this success as she drained some big shots for the Purple and Gold. She canned 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 nailed a huge three with two seconds remaining against Ball State to force overtime as East Carolina out-scored the Cardinals 19-6 in the extra period. Most recently, Bannister banked a trey with 15 seconds left in regulation against SMU marking the fourth time this season she has netted the game-winning point for ECU.

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

Balancing Act
ECU has been a balanced team this season, utilizing all 10 players on its active roster in all of its last 13 games. Furthermore, nine Pirates are averaging double-digit minutes played.

Three Me
The loss at Temple snapped a 218-game streak of that East Carolina made at least one three-point basket. Prior to Temple, the last time the Pirates did not make at least one was Feb. 6, 2010 at UCF. The Pirates have now made a trey in 222 of the last 223 games.

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 quartet marked ECU's first top-50 signing class in program history.

Pirates in the Community
ECU Women's Basketball players have logged more than 650 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. ECU spent time helping to pack 7,000 meals at Peace Presbyterian Church on Monday in conjunction with the nation-wide MLK Day of Service.

Up Next
East Carolina has its conference bye this weekend and will return to action on the road at Tulsa January 31.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Antoinette Bannister

Dominique Claytor

Alexis Cortez

Alex Frazier

Kristen Gaffney

Raven Johnson

Bre McDonald

Thais Oliveira

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