Pirates Fall to Texas in NCAA Tournament, 79-40

Saturday, March 18

Austin, Texas

10 PM ET

East Carolina University

23-10,11-5AAC

Texas

26-9,14-4Big 12

East Carolina

Texas

March 19, 2023 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

AUSTIN, Texas – The No. 13-seed East Carolina women's basketball team's remarkable 2022-23 season came to a close with a 79-40 loss to No. 4-seed Texas on Saturday in the Longhorn's Moody Center.

East Carolina (23-10) simply couldn't buy enough baskets to stay in the game. Danae McNeal found her way to the foul line frequently but shots from the field – shots the Pirates ordinarily expect to make – weren't falling for a large portion of the game.

The Pirates managed to hang around for a while in the game, but Texas (26-9) used a 22-9 second quarter to blow open a 21-point margin going into halftime. ECU actually managed more shots in that first half with 31, but only made seven to Texas' 15-29 clip.

The Longhorns were as tall and talented as advertised – and it wasn't that the Pirates played all that poorly, Texas made tough, contested shots and took away transition opportunities which had resulted in scoring chances all season for ECU. Shaylee Gonzales led all scorers for the Longhorns with her 20 points while Taylor Jones put up 16 points, eight rebounds and six blocks.

Texas also dominated on the glass 44-30, using their size to tower over the Pirates seemingly every time a shot went up all while outshooting ECU 54.0 percent to 17.9 percent.

McNeal finished the game with a team-high 13 points while Amiya Joyner contributed 10 points and eight rebounds while moving into third on the ECU single-season rebounds list.

The loss stings, as it should, but when the full story of this season is written for East Carolina, losing to Texas before a raucous Burnt Orange crowd on a March night will not be the low point, but a memorable moment, a monumental first for a program on the rise.