Tigers Women's Basketball To Face Talented East Carolina Squad Saturday

Saturday, February 13

Greenville, N.C.

4 pm CT

University of Memphis

East Carolina

Photo by: Brandon Dill

Tigers Women's Basketball To Face Talented East Carolina Squad Saturday

Feb 12, 2016 | Women's Basketball

Saturday's game can be viewed on ESPN3.com/WatchESPN.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The University of Memphis women's basketball team won its program-record eighth American Athletic Conference game for a single season at UCF Feb. 10. So, time to celebrate, correct?

In two words from head coach Melissa McFerrin and her Tigers: Not yet.

There still remains work to do for the 2015-16 squad, and that continues Saturday, Feb. 13 when the Tigers travel to Greenville, N.C., to face East Carolina. Game time is 4 p.m. (CT) from Williams Arena on the East Carolina campus, and ESPN3.com/WatchESPN is broadcasting the contest.

Although the Pirates' record doesn't reflect it, McFerrin and the Tigers know they are facing a talented East Carolina team. The Pirates feature two 2014-15 All-American Athletic Conference selections in Jada Payne and I'Tiana Taylor. This season, Payne and Taylor both are ranked in the top-15 in scoring and top-five in rebounding in the conference.

"East Carolina is a team that has top-four talent in this league," said McFerrin. "They are a dangerous team, and they may be getting to the point of desperation now because they only have three conference wins. I know that is not sitting well with them because they had aspirations to be where they were a year ago which was a top-four finish. Playing them at their place is going to be a challenge for us."

As for playing opponents on the road, Memphis is going to see a lot of that down the stretch of its conference schedule in February. Starting with their Feb. 10 game at UCF, the Tigers play four of their final six league games on the road.

Memphis won at UCF 69-52 Feb. 10 and play at East Carolina Saturday. The Tigers also travel to USF Feb. 21 and Houston Feb. 29. Memphis is one of two teams in the American Athletic Conference to have four of its final six league contests away from home. SMU is the other team.

Radio: 91.7 FM (WUMR)
Internet Video: ESPN3.com/WatchESPN
Live Stats: ecupirates.com/gametracker
LiveTweet: @MemphisWBKB, #MEMWBKB, #GoTigersGo

Tigers Tidbits/Five Notes To Know
• Memphis holds a narrow 13-12 lead in the series. The teams split their two encounters in 2014-15, with each squad protecting its homecourt. The Pirates won last season's match-up in Greenville, N.C., a 60-39 victory in Williams Arena. The last time Memphis won in Williams Arena was in the 2011-12 campaign. That season, the Tigers posted a 69-56 victory over East Carolina.

• In recent match-ups played in Greenville, N.C., the outcomes have not been close. In fact, the average margin of victory in the last six Memphis-East Carolina games played in Williams Arena is 16.2 points. The closest margin of victory in those six games was 12 points in an 87-75 Memphis win in the 2010-11 campaign. The last time a Tigers-Pirates' game in Greenville was decided by single digits was in 2007-08, a 61-59 Memphis win Feb. 23, 2008.

• When it comes to defense, the Tigers have been playing well lately. In four of its last five games, Memphis held the four foes under 60 points. The Tigers' opponents averaged 55.0 points, while Memphis averaged 66.8 points in those four games. Memphis also forced its opponents to average 23.8 turnovers per game (95 total) over that stretch of games. For the season, the Tigers have a 10-1 record (.909 winning percentage) when they hold their opponents to under 60 points.

• So, Tiger Nation wants more defense. Well, the 2015-16 squad can do that. In the last four games in which it held foes to under 60 points, Memphis also has held three of those four opponents to under 40 percent shooting from the field. For the season, the Tigers have an impressive 10-3 record (.769 winning percentage) when holding opponents to under 40 percent from the floor.

• Saturday's game will have an international feel to it. The teams' two rosters have a combined five international players representing four different countries outside of the United States. The Tigers have three international players. Junior college transfer Loysha Morris (Toronto, Ontario) and sophomore forward Cheyenne Creighton (Pickering, Ontario) both are from Canada. Freshman forward Milena Bajic calls Podogorica, Montenegro, home. The Pirates have two international players. Junior Fanni Csutoras hails from Bogad, Hungary, and junior Zippy Khasoa calls Nairobi, Kenya, home.

Scouting East Carolina
The Pirates bring a 9-15 overall record and a 3-9 league mark into Saturday's American Athletic Conference match-up. East Carolina has a 4-4 overall record at Williams Arena in 2015-16, including a 2-4 mark in conference match-ups. The Pirates dropped their last two home decisions to Temple and Tulsa.

East Carolina returns two starters and six letterwinners from its 2014-15 team. Redshirt senior Jada Payne leads three Pirates averaging double figures at 19.3 ppg (third in The American). Senior I'Tiana Taylor (13.2 ppg) and redshirt junior Marina Laramie (11.0 ppg) also average double digits scoring for East Carolina. Taylor (10.2 rpg) and Payne (9.1 rpg) are ranked second and fourth, respectively, among the American Athletic Conference rebounding leaders. Freshman Alex Frazier is tops on the team with 60 assists (2.5 apg), and Payne leads East Carolina with 50 steals (2.1 spg). Senior DeVaughn Gray is the Pirates top three-point threat, hitting 30.2 percent from the arc.

East Carolina is shooting 39.5 percent from the floor, 28.6 percent from the three-point arc and 68.8 percent from the free throw line. The Pirates are out-rebounding their opponents by an average margin of +2.2 boards per game (40.2-38.0).