ECU scored just two points in the first quarter on 1-of-17 shooting.
The first half was an absolutely abysmal one for the Pirates on offense. Johnson battled through a stomach bug pregame, according to McNeill, and ended up playing 39 minutes to score 13 points with seven rebounds. Alexsia Rose was big off the bench with nine points. Joyner scored seven points with 15 rebounds. She did have two blocks and four key steals. That’s what we do.”Įast Carolina survived an off night from leading scorer Danae McNeal, who took 17 shots but finished with just six points. “We want to be in that position where we defend. “It’s what we do, defense,” said ECU junior Synia Johnson, who finished with a team-high 13 points and four steals. Up 45-44 in the final seconds, Joyner had a key block with less than three ticks left to give the ball back to the Pirates on a jump ball. Dennis added two free throws after a defensive stop to make it 45-42.ĮCU turned it over after a Houston layup. Amiya Joyner’s fastbreak and-one layup off an assist from Micah Dennis gave ECU a 43-42 lead, and the Pirates didn’t trail again. The game was knotted at 30-30 heading into the final quarter before Houston took a 42-40 lead with 2:31 left. We won this game on what we do, and that’s defense.” “We did not hide from the hard things,” McNeill said. There wasn’t much scoring, but there were plenty of defensive stands, turnovers, and bodies crashing into each other and diving on the floor.ĮCU scored just two points in the first quarter, but found a way to overcome the offensive struggles, including a final field goal percentage of 28.1 percent, a free throw rate of 40.9 percent and 23 turnovers. Most of it came down to toughness and defense. In a matchup of two of the top defensive teams in the country, and a rematch of the Pirates’ triple overtime victory inside Minges Coliseum over the Cougars just a few weeks ago, ECU and Houston traded blows all evening long. They picked us last! And now we're going dancing,” McNeill said after the game on the ESPNU broadcast.
It’s the third NCAA tournament berth in program history, and the first since 2007. Kim McNeill, in her fourth year as the team’s head coach, saw her squad go from being picked last in the preseason AAC media poll, to winning the conference tournament championship. That same trend played out in East Carolina’s favor again on Thursday night in the biggest win for the women’s basketball program in recent memory, as the Pirates defeated Houston, 46-44, in a slugfest to capture the first American Athletic Conference title in program history, and earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. It wasn’t pretty at times, but it was the way East Carolina has liked it all season long: Hard-fought, gritty and defensive.
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