Hurricane Comes up Short at ECU, 73-64

Saturday, February 8

Greenville, N.C.

1:00 p.m.

Tulsa

12-12,6-6AAC

East Carolina

13-11,5-7AAC

Tulsa

East Carolina

Photo by: Ali Zamudio

Hurricane Comes up Short at ECU, 73-64

2/8/2025 4:02:00 PM | Women's Basketball

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GREENVILLE, N.C. — Despite having four score in double-digits and combine for 10 3-pointers, the Tulsa women's basketball team fell in a tough 73-64 loss Saturday at East Carolina (13-11, 5-7 AAC). The Golden Hurricane dropped back to a .500 record at 12-12 overall with a 6-6 American Athletic Conference mark.

ECU caught Tulsa in foul trouble and took advantage at the line with a 20-27 free throw clip compared to the Hurricane's 10-12 tally. The Pirates won the rebound battle 40-32, which led to 20 second-chance points, 10 more than Tulsa. Finally, East Carolina's bench outscored Tulsa's 15-2.

Leading the Hurricane in scoring was none other than senior Delanie Crawford, who finished with 24 points. Redshirt junior Paige Bradley (14), junior Hadley Periman (12) and senior Kristol Ayson (10) joined her in double-digit territory.

Sophomore Jade Clack matched Periman and Crawford in the team-high with six rebounds off the bench. Ayson helped coordinate the offense with four assists and boosted the defense with five steals, a career high.

"So proud of our team in their fight," Head Coach Angie Nelp said. "There wasn't a moment in that game where we weren't fighting and clawing and trying to kind of climb our way back in after that 15-2 run in the third quarter that hurt us pretty badly. Offensively, just super physical game. We weren't able to break free off of our cuts. It was just a really, really physical game that we were trying to overcome. And then we tried to overcome it in small balls. We tried to overcome it in just some different ways, in some different areas, and then we had some open shot. Felt like our team played really well. Adjusted really well after that 15-2 run both defensively and offensively, to try to become more aggressive. I felt like we got just a little bit gun shy with some of our open shots that we had. We want to see our players take those shots, even if we missed this. Want to see us take those shots, just a little bit more."

ECU's Amiya Joyner, who was honored before the game for reaching 1,000 career points, led the Pirates with 21 points. She was joined in double-figures by Anzhane Hutton and Khia Miller, who each scored 12. Devin Hagemann coordinated the offense with eight assists.

HOW IT HAPPENED
IN THE FIRST QUARTER . . .
Scoring the game's first points was Anzhane Hutton, who drew a shooting foul from Mady Cartwright during the tip-off. Hutton followed with a tip-in layup after TU came away empty on its first offensive possession.

Hadley Periman came up with two blocks in the first two minutes of the game, stuffing both Hutton and Amiya Joyner, who put ECU up 6-0.

Tulsa finally got on the board at 7:08 off a left-handed layup from Kristol Ayson. She answered a mid-range jumper by the Pirates for the Hurricane's fourth point at 8-4. From there, both teams missed multiple consecutive shots until ECU's Joyner scored on a fast break layup resulting from a stolen pass of a bad TU pass. Delanie Crawford got on the board with her first layup of the day at 4:40, putting the score at 10-6 ECU at the media break.

The Hurricane's first 3-pointer came off the hands of Paige Bradley at 3:31 after the break. Crawford added one of her own in the following possession to finally give Tulsa a lead at 12-10.

Joyner made a driving layup at 1:57, but was called for an intentional foul after a few minutes of replay, giving way to Crawford sinking a pair of free throws alone at the line. Three free throws by ECU later and the score shows 15-14 Pirates and the end of the quarter.

Both teams combined for 11 turnovers in the quarter with six coming from ECU and five from Tulsa.

IN THE SECOND QUARTER . . .
Paige Bradley made her second 3-pointer of the game to open the scoring in the second quarter. Bradley went up for another triple and Delanie Crawford added her second of the game at 8:06.

From there, both teams traded scores with only Crawford and Bradley getting points. Crawford stole the ball on a bad ECU pass and took it down the court and pulled up for a jump shot near the free throw line to tie up the game at 26-26 at 4:18.

Four TU turnovers would lead to a scoring drought of 2:38, giving way to a 5-0 scoring run by the Pirates. The run would be cut short by Bradley on an unassisted layup at 1:35. ECU's Tatyana Wyche would convert 1-of-2 free throws at 30 seconds, which would be the final score of the half. East Carolina entered the break on top 32-28.

Each team had 10 turnovers at halftime. Five of Tulsa's 10 made field goals were 3-pointers as ECU's paint defense held strong.

At the half, Tulsa was shooting 32.3% from the field (10-31), including 50% from deep (5-10), and 75% in free throws (3-4), while ECU was 34.4% in field goal shooting (11-32), 22.2% in threes (2-9) and 80% in free throws (8-10).

IN THE THIRD QUARTER . . .
Jayla Hearp opened the scoring in the second half on a deep 2-point shot at 8:52. Six Pirate points later forced a Tulsa timeout at 6:33.

Delanie Crawford finally snapped TU's cold streak to start the second half with a turnaround jump shot from mid-range at 6:17. ECU answered back with a layup, putting the score at 42-30 Pirates with 5:53 remaining in the quarter.

Tulsa's shooting trouble continued as the Hurricane missed the next four shots until Kristol Ayson made a driving layup at 3:53. A 5-2 run by Tulsa helped close the gap to 49-35 ECU.

TU's full-court press helped convert some turnovers into points as Hadley Periman and Jade Clack's layups helped keep the Hurricane in the game despite ECU continuing to score as well.

Six combined free throws by TU and ECU in the final minute of the quarter led to a 55-41 score heading into the fourth frame.

IN THE FOURTH QUARTER . . .
Delanie Crawford began the fourth quarter with a pair of fast break free throws and made her third 3-pointer of the game. Kristol Ayson stole a pass on an ECU inbound following a Pirate layup and gave the ball to Jade Clack who found an open Hadley Periman for three points. The 8-2 run by the Hurricane forced a Pirates' timeout at 7:25 with the deficit at just eight at 57-49.

After the timeout, Paige Bradley swished her fourth triple of the day. Crawford made her fourth trey as well in the following possession to answer an ECU three, moving the score to 60-55 with 5:50 to go.

Two ECU two-point plays would extend the lead to 64-55. The Pirate defense would hold Tulsa's streaking offense to no points in a 1:02 span, forcing a timeout by the Hurricane at 3:06.

Tulsa's 3:22 scoring drought was snapped when Kristol Ayson nabbed her fifth steal and drove to the basket uncontested for a layup, moving the needle to 65-57 ECU. The Pirates would answer with a crucial 3-pointer with 1:24 left and retaliated against Ayson's following driving layup with a converted and-1 play. East Carolina led 71-59 with 45.1 seconds to go in the conest.

Two made free throws by Mady Cartwright and a trey from Hadley Periman moved it to a three-possession game at 71-64 with 26.7 seconds reading the clock. The Hurricane unfortunately couldn't make the needed 3-pointers down the stretch to close the gap, and the Pirates made the necessary free throws to seal the 73-64 win over TU.

GAME NOTES

Despite the loss, Tulsa maintains the series lead 17-15.
14 team steals by TU ties the second-most in a game by the Hurricane.
Senior Kristol Ayson led with five steals, a career-high.
Tulsa had 10 team 3-pointers for the ninth game this season hitting 10 or more threes.
Tulsa had four score in double-figures.
Senior Delanie Crawford led with 24 points off 7-25 FG, 4-14 3PT and 6-8 FT. It's the eighth time this season she's surpassed 20 points in a game and 24th of her career.
It's also Crawford's 21st game this season scoring in double-digits and 80th of her career.
Redshirt junior Paige Bradley came away with 14 points for her sixth double-figure scoring contest this year and 10th of her career.
Junior Hadley Periman scored 12 points. It's her 10th double-digit point game this season and 11th of her career.
Finally, Ayson had 10 points for her sixth game scoring 10 or more points in a game this year and 16th in her career (50 when counting her NJCAA games)
Periman had two blocks Saturday to move her to 120 in her career, tying Megan Moody's (2002-06) 120 rejections for sixth on the all-time TU blocks chart.
Crawford now has 66 3-pointers this season. It's the eighth-most in a single season by a TU player and just 33 off the record of 99 she set last year.
Crawford's 24 points moved her to 1,609 career points. She needs 134 more to pass Taleya Mayberry's (2009-13) 1,742 points for second in Tulsa history.
Crawford stands at No. 6 in the all-time field-goals-made career chart for TU with 546 after recording seven on Wednesday. She needs 24 more to pass Poindexter's 569 baskets for fifth.
Crawford has 292 career assists for ninth all-time. 30 more will help her pass Alexis Gaulden's (2016-20) 321 assists for eighth.
Lastly, Crawford maintains an .814 career free throw percentage, the ninth-best in Tulsa history. She also has the ninth-most free throws under her belt with 253.

The Hurricane will enjoy a bye on Wednesday and return to action Saturday, Feb. 15, at home in the Donald W. Reynolds Center against North Texas (). Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m.