GREENVILLE, N.C. - Appalachian State University women's basketball opened the season with a second-straight close game that ended in a hard-fought loss. The Mountaineers were unable to regain a lead late in the game on Tuesday night in an 80-75 setback at East Carolina.

Sam Ramirez led the team with 17 points and the Mountaineers (0-2) owned the boards with a 53-35 advantage on the glass in the game, led by Canesha Edwards with 16.

After missing two of their first three, the Mountaineers connected on each of their next four shots to take a 12-11 lead. Ramirez had seven of the team's first 15 points, as the score went back and forth for the first 10 minutes of the game.

Ramirez shot 8-for-14 from the floor and added eight rebounds and five assists for the night.

ECU (2-0) started feeding the ball into the post to take a 26-21 lead before the Apps picked the pace of the game. The Apps immediately took off on a 9-2 run to regain the lead, 28-26. The score stayed close as the teams traded the lead back and forth for the rest of the half as ECU took a 36-34 advantage into the locker room.

Appalachian won the battle on the boards in the first 20 minutes with 16 offensive and 33 total rebounds compared to just 16 total for the Pirates.

To open the second half, Frances Hernandez nailed a three-pointer to give ASU the lead and then converted a rare four-point play to extend the lead to 45-40 three minutes into the half.

ECU battled back to take a 67-64 lead with five minutes to play. Seven points from Brittney Spencer and a Ramirez bucket pulled ASU within one at 69-68 with just over four minutes to play, however, and another trey from Hernandez tied the score at 71 with 2:52 remaining.

Spencer turned in another career performance while running the point, with 16 points and three assists. Hernandez chipped in 15 points and a game-high seven assists on the night. She has made four three-pointers in each of the two games this season.

The Apps never completed the comeback in the final moments of the game and a LaCoya Terry jumper with 34 seconds remaining put the Pirates up by five points, which proved to be the final margin in the 80-75 loss. Terry led ECU with 34 points on 13-of-20 shooting.

Edwards made her first career start in the game and had another solid performance with 15 points, 16 rebounds and two of ASU's six steals. Her 16 boards were the most since Brittany Mixon pulled down 16 last January. Her double-double was the second in as many games this season.

The Apps shot 38 percent from the floor on 13-of-30 shooting and converted 10-of-12 from the free throw line for an 83 percent clip. ECU led Appalachian 20-2 in fast-break points and 24-8 in points off the bench. Haley Hackett scored five and Sad? Means added three points off the bench for the Mountaineers.

The Mountaineers close out the two-game road trip at Wake Forest on Friday at 7 p.m.