Pirates Open AAC Championship On Monday

Game 29: No. 10 East Carolina (11-17, 4-11 AAC) at No. 7 Memphis (15-11, 6-9 AAC)
The Game	March 7 \\\ 4 p.m. \\\ Live Stats \\\ Watch Live
Venue	Dickies Arena (Fort Worth, Texas)
2021-22 Statistics	East Carolina \| Memphis
Information	ECU Notes
Social Media	Twitter \\\ Instagram \\\ TikTok \\\ #OnePirateNation

GREENVILLE, N.C. – Just five days after playing in the regular-season finale, the East Carolina women's basketball team will take on Memphis in the AAC Championship First Round on Monday afternoon.

East Carolina (11-17, 4-11 AAC) earned the No. 10 seed in the league's conference tournament. The Pirates finished the regular season with a pair of close losses, falling to South Florida 68-60 at home before dropping a 56-53 contest at Memphis. Taniyah Thompson was the leading scorer for ECU in both games, finishing with 29 points against the Bulls and 17 against the Tigers. That 17 point outing snapped her streak of six straight games with at least 20 points, one away from tying Rosie Thompson and Kathy Riley for the school record. Thompson finished the regular season second in the AAC in points per game, averaging 18.6 points, which is the highest scoring average by a Pirate since Jada Payne scored 19.5 points in the 2015-16 campaign.

Thompson has 522 points this season and needs 19 more to tie LaCoya Terry, who scored 541 in 2008-09, for tenth in single-season scoring at ECU. She also continues to move up the career scoring list, currently ranking 15th with 1,197 points and ranks ninth with 114 made three-pointers. She needs 31 more points to pass Justine Allpress for 14th all-time and two more triples to pass former teammate Lashonda Monk for eighth in career three-pointers. The Pirates also have a pair of players moving up the single-season blocks list. Tylar Bennett led the AAC in rejections, with 52 and she is one behind Ondrea Shaw for fifth on the single-season blocks list. Iycez Adams has come on strong down the stretch of her freshman season and she now has 18 blocks on the year, including 13 since moving into the starting lineup against Temple on Feb. 6. She is now fourth in blocked shots by a freshman at East Carolina.

East Carolina led the AAC in a variety of categories, headlined by ranking ninth in the country in turnovers forced per game (22.00 per game). The Pirates were also the best in the AAC in steals (301), turnover margin (+4.82) and blocked shots (133), ranking in the top-27 of the country in each category. ECU was also second in free throw attempts (525) and offensive rebounds per game (15.1), ranking 21st in the NCAA in the latter.

Memphis (15-11, 6-9 AAC) beat the Pirates on the last day of the regular season to jump Tulsa and finish as the seventh seed. The 15 wins as well as the over .500 record were both the highest for Memphis since the 2015-16 season. Memphis is led in scoring by Jamirah Shutes, who is averaging 11.3 points. Emani Jefferson is second on the team with 9.7 points and she is second in the AAC in free throws attempted (149) and third in free throws made (107). The Tigers gang rebound, with five players averaging between 4.2 and 6.0 boards, led by Tyler Frierson. Jefferson (57), Maya Stovall (56) and Shutes (51) all have more than 50 assists while Madison Griggs is the top shooter for the Tigers, canning 48 triples this year. As a team, the Tigers excel at getting to the free throw line and are second in the league in made free throws (364) and third in free throw attempts (508).
Memphis' win on Wednesday snapped a six-game winning streak for the Pirates against the Tigers, dropping ECU head coach Kim McNeill to 5-1 against Memphis. ECU now has a slim 19-18 lead in the all-time series between the two programs. The two programs have not met in the AAC Championship, but did play twice in the C-USA Tournament. Memphis won in the 2005 C-USA Championship First Round, earning a 76-67 victory in Charlotte, N.C. East Carolina got the upper hand in the 2010 Quarterfinals, winning 73-66 in Tulsa, Okla.

It will be the second time in four seasons that East Carolina will open the AAC Championship against the same opponent as the regular-season finale. In 2019, the Pirates closed the regular season with a 67-61 win over SMU at home and then beat the Mustangs 50-48 in overtime to open the AAC Championship. Raven Johnson had a combined 19 points in the two victories. That win over SMU was the last postseason win for East Carolina, as the Pirates are 0-3 in AAC Championship since, losing to No. 1 UConn 92-65 in the 2019 Quarterfinals, 67-57 to Temple in the 2020 First Round and 73-63 to Houston in the 2021 Quarterfinals. ECU is now 4-7 overall in the league's postseason tournament, including 3-2 in the first round.

Tipoff is scheduled for 4 p.m., on Monday afternoon at Dickies Arena. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and fans can follow the live stats here.

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Players Mentioned

Iycez Adams

Tylar Bennett

Raven Johnson

Lashonda Monk

Taniyah Thompson

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