East Carolina women's basketball stops skid against Tulane

The ECU women’s basketball team got back to its winning ways Saturday with a 67-63 comeback victory at Tulane.

The Pirates (14-8, 5-6 American Athletic Conference) found themselves down by 10 points with a little less than six minutes remaining before ECU ended the game on a 20-6 scoring run to end their two game losing skid.

The Lady Pirates were lead by redshirt senior Abria Trice who scored 16 points while shooting 6-for-11 from the field.

The Pirates’ leading scorer, redshirt junior Jada Payne contributed 14 points to go along with four rebounds and four assists. Senior Shae Nelson was a key contributor off the bench, scoring 13 points and dishing out four assists.

The Pirates were leading at halftime 29-23, but allowed Tulane (16-5, 7-3 AAC) to spark some significant runs to take the lead.

With a little less than 10 minutes remaining, Tulane’s Courtnie Latham scored seven straight points to lead Tulane into a 12-0 run to take a 10-point advantage.

Head coach Heather Macy then called a timeout to slow down the Tulane momentum.

Coming out of the timeout, the Pirates began to use half court traps, which forced multiple Green Wave turnovers and allowed the Pirates to regain the lead.

“That timeout was more about challenging them,” Macy said. “And reminding them what we are about as a basketball program, where our mentality’s got to be to win games not just on the road, but in this conference.”

The games’ leading scorer, Abria Trice, came up big for the Pirates down the stretch as she scored four points with less than two minutes remaining to help secure the victory and keep the Pirates on top.

“Abria is playing her best basketball right now,” said Macy. “She’s had a stretch of about ten days where I have been really impressed with the way she’s playing and I think that she’s coming on right at the right time.”

With the Pirates up by two, junior Jasmine Phillips hit two key free throws with less than 10 seconds remaining to guarantee a Pirate victory.

The Lady Pirates shot 42.6 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from beyond the three-point arc and 76.5 percent from the free throw line.

“Tulane was a really good road win,” Macy said. “Just really proud of the team with overcoming the adversity late in the game with us behind. I think we did a better job of keeping them off the three point line.”

Tulane was lead by junior center Chinwe Duru, who posted 12 points, seven rebounds and one block. Sophomore guard Courtnie Latham also added 12 points and three steals.

It comes as no surprise that the Pirates smothered the Green Wave into turning the ball over 16 times, nine of which were Pirate steals.

ECU was also very effective with its ball movement, assisting on 18 of its 23 field goals.

The rapid ball movement and defensive pressure was enough to balance out some sloppy play by the Pirates.

ECU turned the ball over 19 times, 13 of which were Tulane steals.

The last meeting between the two teams resulted in the Pirates taking a loss on their home floor, 76-63. Following the loss, ECU won four straight and got its season closer to being back on track.

The victory on Saturday comes after two straight losses and is the Pirates first win since their 67-49 win at SMU on Jan. 21.

ECU will try to build on its new momentum as they are slated to battle Houston tonight at 7 p.m. at Minges Coliseum.