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UNCASVILLE, Conn. - The University of Cincinnati women's basketball team's season ended Friday evening with a 70-61 loss to the East Carolina Pirates in the First Round of the 2016 American Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Championship inside Mohegan Sun Arena.
// THE SHORT STORY
After facing just a 16-11 deficit at the end of the first quarter, the No. 9 seed Bearcats (8-22, 4-14 The American) were outscored 19-10 in the second by the No. 8 seed East Carolina Pirates (13-18, 6-12 The American) and faced a sizeable halftime deficit. ECU was able to increase its lead to a game-high 19 points early in the second half, but UC refused to roll over and end its season without a fight. Cincinnati manufactured a 10-0 run to trail by just nine midway through the third quarter and later ended the period facing just a 54-44 deficit. During the opening five minutes of the fourth, UC outscored ECU 13-7 to trail by just three with five minutes remaining. Facing a four point deficit with 3:25 to go, the Bearcats leading scorer in the game, senior guard Jasmine Whitfield (Crestwood, Ky./South Oldham), picked up a questionable fifth foul on a would be and-one conversion which flipped the momentum of the game. The Pirates then outscored UC 6-2 over the next two minutes which essentially sealed the win in ECU's favor.
// KEY PLAYERS
CINCINNATI
Jasmine Whitfield: 19 points | 5 rebounds | 2 assists
Bianca Quisenberry: 12 points | 7 rebounds | 2 assists
Alyesha Lovett: 12 points |5 rebounds
EAST CAROLINA
Jada Payne: 26 points | 9 rebounds | 3 steals
I'Tiana Taylor: 15 points | 5 rebounds | 3 assists | 3 steals
Marina Laramie: 10 points | 9 rebounds | 2 assists
// KEY RUNS
- The two teams went back and forth in the early going with East Carolina gaining a slight 10-7 lead six minutes into the game. Despite turning the ball over five times in the opening quarter, the Bearcats faced only a 16-11 deficit heading into the second period.
- UC got a lay-in from junior guard Bianca Quisenberry (Springfield, Ohio/Tecumseh) at the 7:51 mark of the second quarter, but then went scoreless over the next five minutes as the Pirates increased their lead to a game-high 19 points, 32-13. A pair of three-pointers from Whitfield in the final two-and-a-half minutes of the period allowed the Bearcats to reduce their deficit to 35-21 at halftime.
- Cincinnati faced a 19-point hole with 8:15 left in the third quarter, but battled back with a 10-0 run to make the score 42-33, ECU, with 5:21 to play in the period. The Pirates answered with an 8-2 burst to pull ahead by 15, but UC was able to outscore ECU 9-4 over the final three minutes of the stanza to take just a 10-point deficit into the final quarter.
- Heading into the possible last period of play of their season, the Bearcats held nothing back in the fourth quarter. They started the period with a 10-4 surge during the opening four minutes to trail by just four, 58-54. After reducing its lead to three, 60-57, with 4:54 to go, the Pirates fired back with a 4-0 burst to pull ahead by eight with 2:28 remaining. Over the duration of the game, UC was edged 5-4 as ECU gained the upper hand for a 70-61 victory.
// NOTES
- Whitfield led the team with 19 points, posting her 20th double‐figure scoring game of the season, the 38th of her career.
- Whitfield had a game‐high five three‐pointers, one short of her career‐high (6 at Detroit, 12/2/15). She had 18 games with at least two made threes, and finished the season with 60 on 189 attempts. The 189 three‐point attempts ranks 10th all‐time in program history.
- Quisenberry finished with 12 points, her ninth double‐figure scoring game of the season. She averaged 7.4 points per game prior to tonight. She also had seven rebounds, well above her regular season average of 3.4 per game.
- Freshman forward Chelsea Warren (Red Oak, Texas/Red Oak) scored a season-high nine points as well as grabbed six rebounds.