Pirates Continue Road Trip At SMU

Game 16: East Carolina (7-8, 0-2 AAC) at SMU (7-6, 1-0 AAC)
The Game	January 13 \\\ 4 p.m. \\\ Live Stats \\\ Watch Live
Venue	Moody Coliseum (Dallas, Texas)
2021-22 Statistics	East Carolina \| SMU
Information	ECU Notes
Social Media	Twitter \\\ Instagram \\\ TikTok \\\ #OnePirateNation

GREENVILLE, N.C. – A two-game road trip comes to an end as the East Carolina women's basketball team takes on SMU on Thursday afternoon.

East Carolina (7-8, 0-2) will head to Dallas for a game that was rescheduled from its original Jan. 1 date due to COVID-19 issues within the Pirate program. ECU is coming off a 71-59 loss at Tulsa. The Pirates fell behind by 29 in the second quarter, but held Tulsa to just 24 points in the second half. Taniyah Thompson led the Pirates in scoring, finishing with 16 points. The junior guard has now scored in double-figures in six straight games and in 13 of ECU's 15 games this season. Raven Johnson, Morgan Moseley and Tylar Bennett all played well for the second straight AAC game. Johnson had 11 points, her second straight game in double-figures. Moseley did a little bit of everything, scoring six points, grabbing seven rebounds, handing out three assists and recording two steals, all in a career-high 36 minutes. Moseley was +2 in her 36 minutes, the only Pirate to play more than five minutes and finish with a positive plus/minus. Bennett narrowly missed her first double-double as a Pirate, finishing with nine points and eight rebounds while also adding two blocked shots.

Thompson currently ranks second in the AAC in scoring, averaging 17.4 points. The junior guard now has 936 career points, leaving her 64 away from becoming the 24th player in East Carolina history to reach 1,000 career points. Over the past two games, Bennett has racked up nine blocks, including a career-high seven against UCF. Bennett is now second in the AAC in rejections, with 22 while Tiara Chambers is right behind her with 21 blocks. As a team, ECU is first in the league and 22nd in the country with 72 blocks. The Pirates also lead the AAC in turnovers forced (14th in the country, 22.53 per game), steals (12th in the country, 169) and free throw attempts (26th in the nation, 288). The Pirates are second in the AAC and 13th in the nation in offensive rebounds per game with 16.0 per game. As a whole, ECU is 82nd in the country in rebounds per game, hauling in 40.0 boards per game and outrebounding opponents by three rebounds per game.

SMU (7-6, 1-0 AAC) saw its first two scheduled league games postponed, including the planned Jan. 1 game against East Carolina, but the Mustangs opened their AAC slate on Jan. 8 with a 63-44 road win at Memphis. SMU outscored Memphis 32-18 in the first half and never looked back, with four different players scoring in double-figures. Savannah Wilkinson currently leads SMU in scoring, averaging 15.5 points. Kayla White (12.5 ppg) and Sydne Wiggins (11.9) are also averaging double-figures while Jasmine Smith is at 9.1 ppg. ECU will have to battle Wilkinson on the boards, as she is eighth in the country in defensive rebounds per game, grabbing 8.2 and 9.9 rebounds overall. She is also seventh in the nation in double-doubles with nine. As a team, the Mustangs do a good job of taking care of the ball, ranking 46th in the nation with just 13.9 points per game and checking in at 51st in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.08. SMU is 83rd in assists per game, averaging 15.1, with Smith handing out a team-high 60. Rounding out SMU's top-100 rankings is blocked shots, ranking 82nd thanks to 4.1 rejections per game. Wilkinson and Smith are both in the top 10 of the AAC in swats, with 16 and 15, respectively.

East Carolina has a 15-10 lead in the all-time series against SMU. The Pirates went to Moody Coliseum in December 2020 and left with a 50-46 win thanks to 14 points, nine rebounds and four blocks from Tiara Chambers. ECU has now won six of the past eight meetings between the two programs, with SMU's only victories coming in a sweep of the 2019-20 season series. ECU is 4-6 in its 10 trips to Dallas.

Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m., on Thursday afternoon and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+. Fans can follow the live stats here.

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Players Mentioned

Tylar Bennett

Tiara Chambers

Raven Johnson

Morgan Moseley

Taniyah Thompson

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