NASSAU, Bahamas – The East Carolina women’s basketball team fell to the No. 15/10 Ohio State Buckeyes, 79-55, on Monday afternoon in their first game of the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Invitational.

The Pirates battled hard, staying within striking distance into the third quarter before Ohio State was able to pull away.

Ohio State (3-1) got out of the gates quick in the game with an 8-0 start to the game including back-to-back transition layups for Jacy Sheldon to force an ECU (2-2) timeout just 2:32 into the contest. The Pirates hung tough in the contest following the opening stretch to trail by just 10 after a quarter, including six points by Amiya Joyner.
 
The Pirates got rolling in the second quarter with a 6-0 run of their own to cut the deficit to four and force Ohio State to use a timeout of their own at the 7:42 mark. From there the teams battled back and forth with ECU getting as close as one before the Buckeyes extended the margin to six going into the halftime break. Synia Johnson was phenomenal in the quarter, slashing to the basket repeatedly as she scored eight points in the second alone to get to 10 at the half.
 
The Buckeyes began to show their class in the third quarter, hitting a trio of triples and stifling the Pirates’ offense to balloon the deficit to 16 after 30 minutes played. All told, Ohio State won the period 24-12.
 
The third quarter also featured a bit of drama. After a hard foul and some extracurricular activities, Jade Tillman, Joyner, Celeste Taylor of Ohio State and Rikki Harris of Ohio State were all assessed technical fouls. Tillman’s foul was also upgraded to an intentional foul, resulting in her ejection from the contest.
 
The fourth quarter was much of the same as the Buckeyes continued to extend their lead to the final 24-point margin. The Pirates shot just 1-11 from the field in the final period while Ohio State shot 5-9, including 3-4 from deep.
 
Up Next
The Pirates bounce right back into action to play Seton Hall in their second game of the Baha Mar Pink Flamingo Invitational on Wednesday at 11 a.m. The game will once again be available for streaming on FloHoops ($).