The ECU women’s basketball team picked up another American Conference win by rallying to win at Charlotte on Friday.
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Photo credit: (ECU Sports Information)
CHARLOTTE – It took a turn back to the program’s defensive roots for the East Carolina women’s basketball team to shrug off a feisty Charlotte squad on Friday afternoon in Halton Arena, but a stingy finish was enough to secure a 67-61 road win in the rivalry meeting.
The game featured a lot of good—like a season’s best 51-percent clip from the field. It also had some bad—like a frustrating 19 turnovers. Then again, the Pirates (16-7, 8-2 American) forced Charlotte (9-13, 3-3 American) into 25 turnovers of their own while outscoring the hosts by a dozen in the second half, including what wound up being a frankly dominant 19-10 fourth quarter.
The game was a true conference battle for much of the opening minutes as the teams got off to difficult starts offensively—a result, perhaps, of the schedule change which pushed Friday’s game up from its original Sunday afternoon spot. The teams combined to go just 8-28 from the field in the first quarter. ECU, for its part, didn’t get a basket from a player not named Kennedy Fauntleroy until a couple of minutes into the second quarter.
That second quarter was, for the most part, all 49ers. Charlotte built an 11-point lead thanks to a 13-2 run and a subsequent scoring drought over nearly six-and-a-half minutes for ECU. But for a Taylor Barner tripled with just 10 ticks left before halftime, things looked bleak. That three, one of six for the Pirates in the game, cut the margin to six and gave the visitors life.
Jayla Hearp took a turn to star in the third quarter with three made triples, her fourth multi-three game of the year, including a big one to beat the buzzer entering the fourth quarter and making it just a three-point game.
In the final quarter, ECU just kept battling, finally going in front when Keanna Rembert converted an and-one score with 3:13 remaining. That was part of a 7-0 run which forced a Charlotte timeout, only to turn into a decisive 11-0 run, putting the Pirates up by seven with just 52 seconds remaining.
Rembert, along with frontcourt mate Anzhané Hutton, stepped up in a big way in that final frame as the duo combined to score 15 points on 5-5 from the field and 5-6 from the foul line in the fourth. Rembert had a revelatory 10 minutes of basketball as she, in addition to her seven points, drew five fouls in the final period.
Of those five, two were particularly massive: charges taken with 1:45 remaining, and then again with just 16.1 on the clock. Those offensive fouls erased opportunities for Charlotte to claw back into the game and were critical in helping ECU secure the win.
Charlotte was able to get as close as four with 22.8 seconds left after an Imani Smith three and a forced turnover, but the team was unable to capitalize on the ensuing possession.
The win for ECU makes five straight against Charlotte, and two in a row on the road, as well as being the team’s 12th in the last 14 outings. Kennedy Fauntleroy finished the game leading the Pirates in scoring with 21 to go with five assists and six steals as four players scored in double figures in the game.
Up Next
The Pirates return home next Wednesday to host South Florida for a 6 p.m. contest in Minges Coliseum.