Jan. 7, 2010

Complete Game Notes In PDF Format

ECU Women's Basketball Gameday Central

GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina women's basketball team looks to improve to 2-0 in league play Friday, hosting 2009 Conference USA Tournament finalist Southern Miss at Minges Coliseum. Tipoff is slated for 7 p.m.

The Lady Pirates, 12-2 overall, have won five of their last six contests and are coming off a comprehensive 78-54 win in their C-USA opener against Marshall. ECU improved to 7-0 at home with the 24-point win, marking the largest margin of victory in program history in a C-USA game. The previous standard was a 23-point win over the same Herd team a year ago in Greenville. The Lady Pirates have also won 21 of their last 26 contests at Minges Coliseum.

ECU shot .560 percent for the contest, marking the seventh time this season it has reached the .500 plateau, while holding the Herd to .383. The Lady Pirates also turned in their best efforts from beyond the arc and at the free throw line, producing .667 and .875 efficiencies, respectively. However, Marshall won the battle of the boards, 35-32, including 19 offensive rebounds.

Crystal Wilson shined for the second-straight game, following up her 20-point performance against Binghamton last week with 18 Monday. Additionally, Kelly Smith nailed all five of her three-point attempts to end up with 15 points while Chareya Smith tallied 12 on 4-for-4 shooting from the field and an identical 4-for-4 mark from the free throw line. Kim Gay led the team in rebounding for the third-straight game, picking up six.

Ashley Clarke paces East Carolina, scoring 12.8 points per contest, while also averaging a C-USA second-best 5.4 assists per game. The Lady Pirates feature six players that score 7.6 or more points a contest, with Wilson and Allison Spivey producing 10.5 and 10.3 marks, respectively.

ECU resides in the top five of C-USA in 17 different statistical categories, including first in scoring (74.6 ppg), field goal percentage (.478), three-point field goal percentage defense (.276) and rebounds allowed (33.2).

Southern Miss enters Friday's tilt at 4-9 overall, having lost five-straight, including a 76-68 home loss to Louisiana Tech Jan. 3. Pauline Love, a 2009 C-USA Preseason honoree, paces the team with averages of 16.2 points and 12.1 rebounds. Tanesha Washington is also averaging double figures in points, putting in 11.1 per contest. The Golden Eagles are shooting the ball at a .410 clip from the field and .335 from beyond the arc. They are also outrebounding opponents by a +1.6 margin (38.9-37.3).

ECU leads the all-time series with the Golden Eagles 7-5 and has taken four of the last five meetings. The Lady Pirates split a pair of contests with Southern Miss last season, losing 68-60 in Hattiesburg before answering with a come-from-behind 64-58 victory in Greenville two weeks later, a contest in which the Golden Eagles led by as many as 15 in the second half.

HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE
East Carolina sports a 275-160 (.632) record inside Minges Coliseum since the arena opened in 1975. Last season, the squad went 12-2 (.857) at home, matching the second-most single-season home wins in program history. The Lady Pirates are 299-163 (.647) when playing in Greenville, spending their first six seasons at an on-campus alternate site while Minges was erected. ECU has been equally effective on its home court under Baldwin-Tener, having accumulated a 68-34 (.667) mark, including a 33-21 (.611) ledger against C-USA competition.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
In its now ninth season of Conference USA competition, East Carolina has begun league play with a win seven times. That number includes the 2006-07 campaign when the Lady Pirates produced a program-best 11-5 C-USA mark and won their first-ever league tournament title, making the school's second NCAA Tournament appearance.

WILSON GOES WILD
In her freshman campaign, Wilson averaged just 3.5 points per game. Now a sophomore, the Raleigh, N.C., native is one of three players averaging 10 or more points a contest, as she holds a team second-best mark of 10.5. One reason for the surge has been her recent play, as Wilson has scored 77 points in the last six games, an average of 12.8. She has also netted double figures seven times.

KELLY COLLECTING THE THREE-BALL
After transferring from West Virginia and sitting out the required year before she could suit up for East Carolina, Kelly Smith will tell you that she is shaking off some of the rust from that long layoff. Anyone who has seen her play recently might argue that she is ready to pick up where she left off as the Lady Pirates enter conference play. In the last three contests, Smith has drilled 11 three-point field goals, including a 5-for-5 showing against Marshall in the C-USA opener.

AMONG THE NATIONAL LEADERS The Lady Pirates are among the top 50 in many categories nationally. ECU is eighth in field goal percentage (.478), 25th in assists per game (16.7), 28th in winning percentage (.846), 33rd in scoring (74.4), 37th in rebound margin (+6.1), 40th in steals per game (10.8), 42nd in 3-point field goal defense (.277) and 50th in scoring margin (12.2). Additionally, Clarke checks in at 31stth in assists per game (5.4), while Spivey is 87th in assist/turnover ratio (1.64).

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SHARE THAT WITH THE WHOLE TEAM?
During the preseason, head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener called her 2009-10 Lady Pirates the most unselfish team she has coached. Those words have rung true so far in the season, as ECU has recorded 234 (16.7 per game) assists to its opponents' 176. Additionally, the squad is 10-1 this season when recording more helpers than its opponent. The Lady Pirates are just ahead of last year's pace when the team ranked second in C-USA, averaging 16.19 assists per contest.

PICK-POCKETING THE COMPETITION
Lady Pirate opponents might want to secure the ball better from this point forward, as ECU is averaging 11 steals in 14 games. The Lady Pirates recorded 21 of them against Houston-Baptist and 16 in a home contest vs. Western Carolina.

FIRING AT 50
The Lady Pirates are enjoying another great shooting season, firing at a .478 clip in 14 contests. ECU has shot 50 percent or above in seven games, including two games reaching the 60-percent plateau.

UP NEXT FOR THE LADY PIRATES After tonight's contest with Southern Miss, the Lady Pirates welcome defending Conference USA champion UCF to Minges Coliseum Sunday for a 2 p.m. tipoff. The Knights, after starting 2-11 last season, recovered to finish 11-5 in league play, becoming the second-ever team to win four games in four days to secure the championship. ECU and UCF split two meetings in 2008-09 with the Knights taking an 83-72 decision in Orlando before the Lady Pirates rebounded with an 86-83 overtime triumph a few weeks later in Greenville.

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