GAMEDAY PREVIEW: Women’s Basketball at Tulsa

Game 22: East Carolina at Tulsa
Date	Tuesday, Jan. 31
Time	8:00 p.m. (ET)
Location	Tulsa, Okla. (Reynolds Center)
Coverage	Live Stats \\\ Watch Live \\\ WZMB Radio \\\ East Carolina Game Notes
Social Media	Twitter: @ECUScoreboard \\\ @ECUWomensHoops \\\ #ECUndaunted \\\ #2FTN

GREENVILLE, N.C. – East Carolina (10-11, 1-7 AAC) heads to Tulsa (7-14, 3-5 AAC) to face the Hurricane at 8 p.m. inside the Reynolds Center. The Pirates look to snap a five-game conference losing streak and pick up their first AAC road game of the season.

Kristen Gaffney leads ECU with 14.3 points and 6.1 rebounds per game while Bre McDonald averages 11.5 points and 5.9 boards per game. Last time out, freshman Justice Gee scored a career-high eight points against No. 1/1 Connecticut inside Minges Coliseum.

As a unit, the Pirates are averaging 61.8 points per game this season and are shooting 40.9 percent from the field. The Purple and Gold is averaging 37.8 rebounds per game while holding opponents to 29.2 percent shooting from three-point range.

Scouting the Hurricane
Tulsa enters Tuesday night's matchup 7-14 overall and 3-5 in American Athletic Conference play. The Hurricane is coming off an AAC home win over SMU 55-59. Erika Wakefield is leading Tulsa with 11.9 points per game while Kendrian Elliott has a team-high 7.3 rebounds per game. In the last five games, Shug Dickson is averaging 19.5 points per game and has had four 20+ point performances. The Hurricane has won three league games defeating Memphis and SMU at home and UCF on the road. Tulsa is averaging 64.8 points per game and is shooting 39.3 percent from the field as a unit.

The Series
Tulsa leads the all-time series 9-8 over East Carolina since the two first met January 29, 2006. The Hurricane has won the last three meetings most recently defeating the Pirates 55-54 in Greenville on February 3, 2016. Head Coach Heather Macy is 6-5 all-time against Tulsa entering Tuesday's game.

Last Time Out (Jan. 24)
East Carolina was led by Kristen Gaffney who had 13 points while freshman Justice Gee score a career-high eight points as the Pirates lost, 91-44, to No. 1 Connecticut Tuesday night. Connecticut outscored East Carolina by 19 points in the opening quarter but the Pirates entered the second frame with an 11-0 run to quickly cut the deficit to 12 points. The Huskies were scoreless for nearly the first seven minutes of the second quarter, but the draught was snapped by a trey from UConn's leading scorer Katie Lou Samuelson at 3:11. By halftime, East Carolina trailed the top-ranked Huskies 46-24, the second-smallest halftime deficit in the two's eight meetings. After halftime, UConn burst out with a 15-0 run to take a commanding 36-point lead at 4:18. Despite ECU improving offensively in the second portion of the half, Connecticut cruised to a 91-44 win over the Purple and Gold en route to its NCAA record 94th consecutive win.

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 9 players on its active roster in all of its last 14 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 223 of the last 224 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 returns home to host Houston at 2 p.m. Saturday on the ESPN3.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Antoinette Bannister

Dominique Claytor

Alexis Cortez

Kristen Gaffney

Justice Gee

Raven Johnson

Bre McDonald

Thais Oliveira

Footer