Tulsa Women Topple the Pirates 68-54

Wednesday, January 20

Reynolds Center

6:00 pm

Tulsa

4-5,3-5AAC

ECU

5-8,3-5AAC

East Carolina

Tulsa

Tulsa Women Topple the Pirates 68-54

1/20/2021 8:36:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

GAME STATS I SEASON STATS l PHOTO GALLERY

TULSA, Okla. –– Tulsa used a strong fourth quarter en route to a 68-54 win over the East Carolina Pirates Wednesday night at the Donald W. Reynolds Center. The Hurricane improved to 4-5 overall and 3-5 in the American Athletic Conference, while ECU fell to 5-8 and 3-5 in AAC play.

Freshman Jessika Evans had a career night with her first double-double of 11 points and 14 rebounds, while junior Desiree Lewis also turned in a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Maya Mayberry led the scoring with 21 points as the junior converted on 8-of-11 from the field and 5-of-7 from three-point range for her third 20+ scoring game in the last four contests.

"I thought our kids banded together. We got shoulder-to-shoulder and made them take a tough shot or kick it out," said Tulsa Head Coach Matilda Mossman. "I thought Jessika made some freshmen mistakes, but she doesn't typically make the same mistake twice. She held her own against a veteran team and I'm proud of her for getting her first double-double, and I don't think it will be her last."

Tulsa outscored the Pirates 21-9 in the fourth quarter to expand a 2-point end of third quarter lead to a 14-point victory, the largest of the season for the Hurricane. Tulsa connected on 46-percent of its field goals in the final stanza, while holding ECU to just 13-percent from the field in the final 10 minutes.

The Pirates scored the first points of the second half to take a 34-33 lead, but that would be the only lead of the final 20 minutes for the visitors. Tulsa built a 54-47 advantage on an Evans put-back jumper at the 7:43 mark, before ECU went on a 7-0 run to knot the score at 54 with 4:16 left on the game clock.

Tulsa finished out the game on a 14-0 run over the final four minutes for the victory.

The Hurricane ended the game with a field goal percentage of .423, while also knocking down 81.8 percent from the free throw line. Tulsa won the battle on the boards, 46-34, and dished out its second-most assists for the season with 15.

"I am really proud of the way we put tougher four complete quarters. It took players like Maddie Bittle and KK Rodriguez coming off the bench. Maddie was solid defensively and got some huge rebounds, KK gave them fits at the top of their 2-3 zone and didn't let Lashonda Monk get much going in the fourth quarter," added Mossman.

It was a close first half as the biggest lead was 5 points for Tulsa to start the second quarter and ECU's biggest lead was 4 points in the first period at 4-0. Tulsa's largest first-half advantage came on its first basket of the second quarter when Maya Mayberry knocked down a 3-pointer to make the score 19-14.

Tulsa took a 13-12 lead at the 2:03 mark of the first quarter and didn't give up the lead until the 2:37 mark of the second period when Lashonda Monk hit a three-pointer for the Pirates. Maya Mayberry's three-pointer with 2:12 left in the first half put the Hurricane back on top by one point, 33-32.

The score would stay at 33-32 at halftime.

The Hurricane shot 39-percent from the field, while ECU had a field goal percentage in the first 20 minutes of 46 percent. The difference in the half was an 8-3 edge in free throws made for the Hurricane.

Tulsa goes on the road for a two-game road trip on back-to-back Saturday's, facing the Memphis Tigers on Jan. 23, and East Carolina a week later on Jan. 30.