LAS VEGAS – The East Carolina women’s basketball team saw a comeback effort come up short against Montana State, 62-56, on Wednesday afternoon in their first game of the UNLV Thanksgiving Classic. Jayla Hearp and Amiya Joyner scored in double figures for the Pirates while Morgan Moseley grabbed a season-high seven rebounds.
The Pirates (3-3) dug themselves into a hole to start the game, allowing a 9-0 start for Montana State (5-1) before finally answering with a 12-0 run of their own. Hearp was terrific during that early stretch of the game with 10 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal in the first half of play, including back-to-back triples in the ensuing stretch as they Pirates held on to a small lead into the second quarter.
Late in the first half, though, the Bobcats put on a spurt of their own, closing the half on a 14-2 run before extending the spurt to 27-9 going into the second half of play. The Pirates did manage to draw within three with 75 seconds remaining in the third quarter but a Katelynn Martin three extended the margin back to six and made it a greater challenge going into the fourth.
Montana State scoring the first five points of the final period didn’t help matters and by the time the Pirates went on a spunky 5-0 run to end the game, there simply wasn’t enough time. Twice getting it to six in the fourth, the final dagger may have been Esmeralda Morales’ three with 45 seconds remaining which pushed the margin back to nine. Morales led all scorers in the game with 15.
The crux of the game ultimately came down to this: The Pirates turned the ball over 29 times, resulting in 24 points off of turnovers for Montana State. That’s a tough ship to sail.
Up Next
The Pirates stay in Vegas for a meeting with the UNLV Lady Rebels on Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET. The game will be available for streaming online on the Mountain West Network.
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