Pirates Fall To Memphis In AAC Tournament

Monday, March 7

Fort Worth, Texas

4 PM

East Carolina University

11-18,4-11AAC

Memphis

16-11,6-9AAC

East Carolina

Memphis

March 07, 2022 | Women's Basketball

Box Score Box Score

FORT WORTH, TEXAS – A first quarter run was the difference as the tenth-seeded East Carolina women's basketball lost to seventh-seeded Memphis 59-48 in the AAC Championship First Round at Dickies Arena.

East Carolina finishes the season with an 11-18 record while Memphis improves to 16-11 and will move on to face No. 2 seed South Florida in the quarterfinals.

How It Happened

The Pirates had an early lead behind four points from Taniyah Thompson. A jumper from Danae McNeal made it 8-7 in favor of ECU despite a pair of triples by Memphis. But after McNeal's jumper, the Pirates went cold from the floor. ECU managed just one free throw over the final 5:47 of the first quarter. Memphis went on a 13-1 run over that span to take a 20-9 lead after one.
Needing a spark to start the second, the Pirates got one through their defense. East Carolina held Memphis scoreless for the first three minutes of the second and rattled off a 10-0 run. Da'Ja Green had four points while Thompson, Synia Johnson and Tylar Bennett each added two.
But the Pirates could not get any closer than 20-19. The Tigers answered with a triple by Madison Griggs to end the ECU run and spark a 10-2 run for Memphis, putting the lead back to 30-21. East Carolina again went cold from the floor, scoring just four points over the final 7:12 of the second quarter and that allowed the Tigers to extend their lead to 36-23 at halftime.
The third quarter started like the second, with ECU opening on a 7-0 run behind a triple from Johnson and layups from Thompson and Morgan Moseley. But once again, the Pirates could not sustain that run. After closing to within six, ECU saw Memphis can a triple followed by a second chance layup to again push the lead to double-digits. The Memphis lead stretched to 44-30 before a 6-0 Pirate run closed the third to make it just 44-36 heading into the fourth.
The Pirate offense prevented ECU from making a run. East Carolina got just two points over the first six and a half minutes of the fourth, while Memphis stretched its lead to 18 at 56-38 with 3:33. Although ECU finished the game on a 10-3 run, the Pirates never got closer than 11 points as Memphis closed out the win.

Final Notes

Thompson finished with 14 points to lead the Pirates, her 20th straight game with at least 10 points and her 27th double-figure scoring game overall.
Johnson led the Pirates with seven rebounds while Bennett, Thompson and Moseley all had six boards apiece.
Bennett also added three steals and three blocks, finishing her lone campaign with East Carolina with 55 total rejections, the fifth highest single season total in Pirate history.
Green and Johnson both finished with nine points while Green had a team-high five assists.