Rice women’s basketball took care of business at home, riding a dominant fourth quarter to a win over UAB to maintain a perfect record at home.
It took less than five minutes of action for Rice women’s basketball to make it abundantly clear they were on a different level of the playing field from UAB. The Blazers were winless in conference play when they arrived in Houston and the Owls — the only squad not to drop a conference game thus far — has no intentions of swapping sides of the ledge on Wednesday night.
Rice raced out to an 11-0 lead before UAB could find their footing. The Blazers were able to battle back and make things competitive, closing the gap to a single score on a few occasions, but they were never able to force a tie, let alone threaten to take the lead.
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The Owls took an eight point lead into the fourth quarter and from there the rout began. Rice outscored UAB 24-12 across the final 10 minutes, led by a pair of morale crushing three-pointers from Dominique Ennis. The lead would grow to as many as 21 points before UAB’s final whimper from the free throw line resulted in a 20-point win.
With the victory, Rice women’s basketball improves to 14-3 on the season and remains a perfect 8-0 at Tudor Fieldhouse.
Final Box | Rice 76, UAB 56
Key takeaway | Finishing with Free Throws
For as good as Rice women’s basketball was on the boards on Wednesday night, their dominance on the free throw line was absolutely crucial in the outcome of this game. Shooting can be fickle and fouls can vary wildly from game to game, but free throws are just that: free. Rice knows that better than just about anyone else.
The Owls entered the game tops in the American Conference in free throw percentage, knocking down 81.3 percent of their attempts on the season. A perfect 12-for-12 evening from the charity stripe against UAB will only raise that number. That’s the kind consistency that pays dividends in March.
Up Next: at North Texas (Sat. Jan. 17 at 2:00 pm)
