East Carolina women's basketball set for AAC match at Temple

With just two games left in the season, Head Coach Heather Macy and the ECU women’s basketball team are on the verge of finishing off a historic inaugural season in the American Athletic Conference.

The Lady Pirates (19-8, 10-6 AAC) are on track to finish third in the conference, where they were predicted to finish in the Coaches’ Preseason AAC Poll. With one more win on the season, the team would make program history for recording three-straight 20-win seasons.

“It shows that we’re a program,” said Macy. “When you look at how we recruit and build our team through transfer players and our redshirt program, it’s clear to see that we truly are a program and not a different individual team every season.”

ECU is currently on a season-high six-game win streak and will be taking on Temple (13-15, 9-6 AAC) in Philadelphia, Pa. for its last road game of the season, before returning home for senior night.

“Well, it’s a good time to be playing our best basketball,” said Macy. “But I feel like right now we are doing some really nice things and different people are stepping up and having quality minutes for us.”

While ECU has shown they have an advantage of riding win streaks and staying in groove this season, especially against conference opponents, this matchup could potentially play a big role in the Lady Pirates’ postseason push.

The Owls, who are still a very young team, have all five starters scoring averages in double figures. Freshmen Alliya Butts leads Temple in scoring this season, averaging 12.7 points per game.

ECU has a clear height advantage but will have to continue crashing the boards to prevent Temple’s frontcourt of Erika Covile and Tanaya Atkinson from making a big impact on the glass.  Covile and Atkinson are both averaging just over seven rebounds per game.

With a handful of teams still in contention for the third spot in the conference rankings, the last two games are huge. Since refocusing her team on allowing their defense to fuel their offense, Macy has seen a reduction in the number of three-pointers attempted per game.

"Early on in the season we would have just stayed around the three-point line and shot 25 threes per game," Macy said. "I am just glad that the threes are down and I think long term it's going to help our basketball team."

The Lady Pirates’ attention to detail on defense has increased the number of turnovers forced per game, fast break points and points in the paint. With ECU playing some of its best basketball on the road and their last game at home honoring their seniors, the Lady Pirates must finish strong to have a high seed for the conference tournament.