Pirates roar back to best South Florida, 64-62

It had been 11 years since the Pirates had beaten South Florida in Minges Coliseum, so it was only right that it was an epic affair on Wednesday afternoon as the East Carolina women’s basketball team downed the Bulls, 64-62, in a high-octane American Conference tilt.

The Pirates (17-7, 9-2 American) trailed by as many as 13 points in the game, taking that deficit into the halftime locker room before roaring back for what became the largest comeback since Feb. 22, 2023, in an 88-83 3OT win over Houston in which ECU trailed by 14. ECU was led in scoring by Jayla Hearp’s 18 points as Anzhané Hutton and Kennedy Fauntleroy added 15 apiece. Fauntleroy added six assists and four steals while Hutton hauled in eight rebounds.

The first half of Wednesday’s game was, objectively, not a fun one. The teams struggled mightily, including a stretch of nearly six-and-a-half minutes to end the first quarter in which the two sides combined to make just one field goal. For their part, the Pirates shot just 9-40 in the first half, including 0-7 from three. The team would miss their first nine shots from behind the arc before breaking through with a Jayla Hearp triple with 3:39 left in the third quarter. The team made five of their final nine tries from deep.

For South Florida (13-10, 6-4 American), it was a glorious second quarter, outscoring the hosts 22-8. L’or Mputu and Katie Davidson led the team with 17 points apiece for the game, but for much of the first half, it was frontcourt of Mputu and Carla Brito crashing the glass that helped the Bulls build their lead. Both of those players finished with double-doubles with 13 and 12 rebounds apiece, aiding USF in leading ECU on the glass 26-18 at the half.

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that ECU got cooking, only outscoring the Bulls by four in the third before going back down 11 with just nine minutes remaining in the game.

It wound up being an 18-2 run that pushed the Pirates in front, going from 50-40 down to 58-52 up. And it wasn’t at once, either. The hosts slowly chipped away over the minutes, getting key baskets from the likes of Taylor Barner, Keanna Rembert, Anzhané Hutton and Hearp.

Barner only scored three points in the game, but it was a big triple she hit from deep that gave ECU life, down just six with 6:08 to play. From there, the team and a noisy crowd could sense it.

It was Kennedy Fauntleroy who finally drilled the corner three with just 1:56 remaining to finally push the Pirates back in front for the first time since the six-minute mark of the second quarter. A quick steal by Rembert, then a great post score from the forward, pushed the team up by three with 90 seconds left. After a South Florida miss, ECU put up a possession to remember. Rembert was the hero, grabbing an offensive rebound from her own miss and finishing an and-one bucket on the foul by Brito with just 44 seconds remaining.

In those final 44 seconds, the Pirates used a perfect 7-7 from the foul line to ice the game. South Florida hit a couple of threes and a couple of layups but could not get the hosts to waver as they finished strong for the win.

Up Next
The Pirates hit the road to take on Tulane on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m.