Rice University
East Carolina
Owls Lose To Pirates 79 to 54
2/26/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2009
Greenville, N.C. -- East Carolina had two separate first-half runs of 15-0 and 17-6 to pull away from Rice and win 79-54 in a Conference USA game at Minges Coliseum.
Rice (7-21, 2-13) started strong by scoring on its first four possessions of the contest to stake an early 9-6 lead. ECU (17-11, 8-7) then proceeded to outscore rice 15 to 0 for a 21-9 lead. The Owls then returned the favor to outscore the Pirates 13 to 4 as Morgan Mayse, Brianna Hypolite, and Melissa Wittmayer all canned three-pointers to be down only three at 25 to 22. The Pirates then closed out the first-half on a 17 to 6 run.
The Pirates shot 48.4 percent from the field in the first 20 minutes and was led by LaCoya Terry's 17 points. Terry would finish with a game-high 19 points.
Rice struggled early in the second-half as it only scored 2 points in the first 6:20. Meanwhile, ECU began the half by outscoring the Owls 16 to 5 for a commanding 58-33 lead. The Pirates reached their biggest lead of 30 (69-39) before Rice tallied the next 10 points.
The Owls were led by Hypolite's 10 points to mark her fifth double-digit scoring game. Mayse added 9 points and 5 rebounds, while Megan Elliott scored 8 and pulled down a team-high 9 boards. The Owls shot 25.4 percent from the field, while ECU finished at 47.5 percent.
Jasmine Young and Ashley Clarke each scored 12 points for the Pirates.
Rice now plays at Marshall on Saturday at 2 p.m. (Central).
