Pirates Befuddled by UAB in 73-64 Loss

Wednesday, January 10

Greenville, N.C.

6 PM

East Carolina University

9-5,2-1AAC

UAB

12-4,3-1AAC

UAB

East Carolina

January 10, 2024 | Women's Basketball

Box Score

GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina dropped a conference contest to the UAB Blazers on Wednesday night, 73-64. A 29-17 third quarter was the decider as a barrage of threes spelled doom for ECU.

The Pirates (9-5, 2-1 AAC) looked good for most of the first half. The team led for much of the opening frame and Amiya Joyner was splendid with her eight points and nine rebounds in the opening quarter - on her way to a 16-point, 15-rebound effort. But the Blazers (12-4, 3-1 AAC) held strong, weathering the storm of post effort from the home side before picking their moment to pounce.

That moment came in the third quarter when, led by the point play of Denim DeShields - who finished with 11 assists in the game, UAB blew the game wide open with their three-point shooting. The Blazers ordinarily have an exquisite offense, shooting a 35-plus percent clip from downtown, but they took it to another level on Wednesday, unleashing an onslaught of five triples in the third quarter alone, including four of their first five. Four UAB players made two-or-more trifectas in the game and Maddie Walsh banged home five herself to lead a 13-three effort for the team with 44.8 percent of their attempts finding the bucket.

By the time the run was over, the Blazers had put the Pirates in a double-digit hole and the game was all but over.

ECU made a run late, cutting the margin to five points with six minutes remaining before a burst from UAB pushed their lead right back to a dozen only 90 seconds later. The Blazers coasted from their, picking up their third conference win in their young tenure in the American Athletic Conference.

Up Next
The Pirates will return to action on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET as they travel to face Tulane in New Orleans, La. The game will be available for streaming on ESPN+.