MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The East Carolina women’s basketball team dropped a frustrating 75-69 contest to the Memphis Tigers on Saturday afternoon in Elma Roane Fieldhouse.
Three Pirates scored in double figures in the game, led by Anzhané Hutton’s 20 points, but Memphis’ eight made three-point shots were timely and spelled doom as the second half wore on.
The game was a bit of a tale of two halves—one in which two teams battled and traded leads and one in which a hot-shooting home side took control. It was, perhaps, not an unfamiliar formula for the sport.
The Pirates (11-11, 3-7 AAC) got off to a hot start, taking a 6-0 lead which would prove to be the team’s largest of the game. Memphis (5-15, 3-6 AAC) came back and in the first half the game saw a pair of lead changes and four ties. The lead changed hands three more times in the early going of the second half before Memphis took the lead for good at the 6:48 mark of the third quarter.
Four Tigers scored in double figures on the game, but it was Tanyuel Welch and Tilly Boler who scorched the nets, both hitting three triples for 21 and 19 points, respectively. Welch did so without a miss from behind the mark and was simply impossible to defend in the second half as she scored 16 points after the halftime break and 12 in the fourth quarter alone.
Wherever a glimmer of hope for a comeback briefly shone for ECU, Welch and Boler were inevitably there to snuff it out.
Memphis went on to lead by as many as 15 in the second half and did so while taking care of the ball, turning the ball over only 11 times in the game. The Pirates, on the other hand, gave it away 18 times for 15 points off of turnovers for the Tigers.
Overall, the Pirates struggle again to score the ball, only 17 points in the game coming from field goals outside of the painted area. The team scored 44 points from the paint, which is great in ordinary circumstances, but when it is accompanied by 3-13 from behind the arc and 18 turnovers, it becomes markedly more difficult to come away victorious.
It is worth mentioning, too, that the Pirates found themselves in foul trouble early and often in the game, finishing the day with five players just getting by with four fouls.
Up Next
The Pirates are back out on the road on Wednesday as they travel to Birmingham, Ala. to face off with UAB at 7 p.m. ET.
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