Feb. 12, 2010

East Carolina Women's Basketball Gameday Central

Complete Game Notes in PDF Format

GREENVILLE, N.C. - The East Carolina women's basketball team looks for its second-straight win Saturday, hosting Tulane at 1 p.m. in its annual "Pink Zone" contest at Minges Coliseum.

The Lady Pirates (18-6, 7-4) are hoping to break the program's attendance record in the "Drive for Five." The goal is to have at least 5,000 fans in attendance. The game is of paramount importance in the league standings, as ECU trails the Green Wave (18-5, 7-3) by just a half-game for first-place. Additionally, the Green Wave are tied with ECU for the most overall wins in the conference. Fans can gain free admission if they wear pink, are 18 years old or younger, show a valid military ID or have a valid ECU student OneCard. A social with free pizza and drinks will be held for those students at Harvey Hall inside the Murphy Center at 12 noon.

The Women's Basketball Coaches Association's Pink Zone initiative is a global, unified effort for the WBCA's nation of coaches to assist in raising breast cancer awareness on the court, across campuses, in communities and beyond.

With a 64-54 triumph over UTEP Thursday, East Carolina won its school record 12th-straight home game and has won 24 of its last 26 at Minges. The Lady Pirates also surpassed last year's regular-season total of 17 wins and 18 are now the most such victories in head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener's time with the program.

ECU responded from a poor shooting performance in the first half with a 50-percent effort in the second period, sparking the 18-point turnaround. The Lady Pirates also dominated the glass, picking up its largest positive rebounding margin of the season at +26 (48-22) and holding UTEP to the lowest total by an opponent this year. That would prove key as East Carolina converted just 19 field goals, its lowest amount in a win and the second-fewest this campaign. Additionally, after failing to reach 10 made free throws in the last two contests, the Lady Pirates hit 20 of their 27 attempts while holding the Miners to just seven made in 10 tries.

Chareya Smith tied her career high with 14 points while pulling down seven rebounds while Jean Best and Kelly Smith each scored 10. Kim Gay nearly recorded her third double-double of the year, netting nine points to go along with a team-best nine rebounds. Even though Allison Spivey was just 2-for-10 from the field, she contributed in other ways with five assists and six rebounds as well as two triples at key times in the second half. Additionally, Ashley Clarke was 6-for-8 from the line in the second half to end up with six points.

Clarke paces the Lady Pirate league-leading offense with 12.2 points per game while junior Allison Spivey also averages double figures at 11 a contest. It is a balanced attack with three other players putting in at least 7.7 points per game. Gay leads the team on the glass, pulling down 5.7 rebounds over 24 appearances.

East Carolina also leads the conference in field goal percentage, shooting 46.9 percent. However, the Green Wave is fifth in the league in field goal percentage, allowing opponent to fire at just 38.8 percent. The Lady Pirates could use their C-USA best +5.5 rebounding margin to its advantage, as Tulane ranks in the bottom third of the the league in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage.

Chassity Brown is tops for the Green Wave in scoring, putting in 14.2 points per game. She is joined by Danielle Nunn (10.4) who also averages double figures. Sophomore Brett Benzio serves as the best rebounder, pulling down 7.2 over 23 contests.

Tulane finds itself ranked first in C-USA in five categories: scoring defense (59.7), scoring margin (+11.0), assists (16.3), steals (12.5) and turnover margin (+5.1).

The Green Wave defeated Marshall 64-54 Thursday in Huntington, W.Va. and are 6-1 on the road this season.

THE SERIES: TULANE
Today's contest marks the 10th in a series that began in 1986. The Lady Pirates trail Tulane 6-3 and the Green Wave has won four of the last five meetings. Tulane defeated the Lady Pirates at the buzzer, 72-69, in New Orleans last season.

HOME IS WHERE THE WINS ARE
East Carolina sports a 280-160 (.636) 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 304-163 (.651) 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 73-34 (.682) mark, including a 38-21 (.644) ledger against C-USA competition.

THE AFTERMATH: UTEP
The Lady Pirates improved to 4-1 all-time against UTEP and 3-0 at Minges Coliseum ... ECU won its school-record 12th consecutive home game and 24th in its last 26 tries ... A 50-percent shooting second half offset a poor first period, sparking an 18-point turnaround after halftime ... The Lady Pirates held the Miners to 22 rebounds, the lowest total allowed by East Carolina this season ... ECU recorded its largest positive rebounding margin of the campaign at +26 (48-22) ... Sophomore Chareya Smith matched her career high with 14 points while Kelly Smith and Jean Best added 10 each ... Kim Gay nearly recorded her third double-double of the season, registering nine points and nine rebounds ... The Lady Pirates have now won three of five contests.

AMONG THE NATIONAL LEADERS
The Lady Pirates are among the top 50 in many categories in the latest national rankings. ECU is sixth in field goal percentage (.471), 19th in three-point field goal percentage (.377), 21st in assists per game (16.2), 31st in scoring (73.0) and 45th in winning percentage (.739). Additionally, Ashley Clarke is 25th in assists per game (5.4). The next set of rankings will come out Monday, two days after the Lady Pirates' contest with Tulane.

VALUE EVERY POSSESSION
ECU has reached the 20-turnover mark 17 times this season, including 29 against UCF. That has led to a turnover margin of -2.4. Additionally, teams have scored 449 points off of those giveaways.

LAYING OFF ON THE THEFT FOR NOW
The Lady Pirates have been kinder to opponents in the last eight contests, failing to reach 10 steals in each game. Before that stretch, ECU had recorded double-digit thefts in four-straight affairs. Foes have now matched the Lady Pirates with 222 steals through 24 games.

INTO THE WEST
When comparing the Lady Pirate record against the East and West schools in Conference USA, there lies a striking contrast. Since joining the league, East Carolina is 40-27 (.597) versus its East neighbors and just 16-26 (.381) against the West. So far in 2009-10, the Lady Pirates have picked up wins over all five of the East members and Houston and UTEP from the West while dropping decisions to West foes Rice and SMU as well as East rivals Southern Miss and UCF.

SUPER BALANCED
ECU has used its balance to its advantage this season. The Lady Pirates have six players averaging 7.7 or more points per game while every member of the 2009-10 roster played, scored and had a rebound in the 103-59 win over Houston-Baptist. There are also six players averaging more than 20 minutes per game. In C-USA games, three players are putting in double figures in scoring.

UP NEXT FOR THE LADY PIRATES
After hosting Tulane, the Lady Pirates have more than a week off before welcoming Tulsa to Greenville. The contest is the last home game for ECU in 2009-10 and will be used to honor lone senior Caitlin Thys. The Golden Hurricane picked up a 67-64 win over the Lady Pirates last season at the Reynolds Center in Tulsa.

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