Rice Women’s Basketball absorbed North Texas’ best punch before delivering a haymaker of its own to secure a trip to the conference championship game.
With their extended winning streak snapped in their previous outing, Rice women’s basketball entered the American Conference Tournament eager to return to the win column. The Owls drew a rematch with North Texas, which had pushed Rice in both prior meetings this season, setting the stage for another nailbiter early on.
There were three lead changes in the first six minutes of the game, which featured no lead larger than four points. It looked as if Rice was set to take over, blitzing North Texas with a 15-4 run to close the first quarter with an eight-point edge. However, the Mean Green weathered the onslaught, and then some, outscoring Rice 22-9 in the second quarter to enter halftime with a five-point advantage of their own.
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That’s when reigning American Conference Player of the Year Victoria Flores took control. Flores scored 14 of her game-high 21 points in the third quarter — North Texas managed just 11 as a team in that period — as Rice took a commanding 11-point advantage into the fourth and final frame.
“Our team is so lucky to have her,” veteran guard Hailey Adams said of Flores. “She’s a one-of-a-kind player. She’s a gamechanger. You can see that every play, every end of the game. She closes games for us really, really well. She’s just amazing.”
A stingy defensive effort from North Texas in the fourth allowed the Mean Green to hang around, but key foul shooting down the stretch from Aniah Alexis and Flores allowed Rice to close out a four-point win. They’ll take on the winner of East Carolina and UTSA in the American Conference Championship Game on Saturday.
Final Box | Rice 71, North Texas 67
What They’re Saying
“We’ve been here before, but we’re also not leaning into the past. This team is very different and this team is all about our motto, TNT, Today Not Tomorrow. And so tomorrow, we’re going to do everything we can to be the best version’s of ourselves and go 1-0 tomorrow.
We didn’t expect to get to get to the championship just because we had been there before. And we don’t expect to win it just because we had been there before. We will have some veterans who have played in those moments, and they’ll remember those things. But we’re not leaning into that. We’re leaning into the work that we have done over and over and over again this year, once we do get there.” – Rice Women’s Basketball head coach Lindsay Edmonds on reaching the American Conference Championship Game
Key takeaway | Battle Tested
While a breezy blowout would have been less stressful to watch, there’s something to be said for this battle-tested version of Rice women’s basketball. The Owls have blown past their conference peers, but it’s not as if they’ve been untested. Even on Friday against North Texas, Rice found itself in a second half deficit in need of a rally.
That Rice did rally — and has consistently been able to do so — speaks to the caliber of program head coach Lindsay Edmonds has built on South Main.
“We’ve been battle tested. We’ve been down before. We’ve had to come back from being down to win. We’ve taken the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter with like 14 seconds to go in the game. We’ve had a lot of battle tests and we’ve been able to always respond in that moment,” Edmonds said.
“This group has never been afraid of that moment. They’ve never backed down from that moment. And that’s what made them special all year long and that showed up again tonight.”
That veteran team is heading to the conference championship game for the third straight season. They cut down the nets in 2024 and came up short in 2025. What makes this team believe they can get back on top this time around? That same unwavering belief that’s carried them through this season.
“We’ve been in this position before, all season long. We’ve gotten teams’ best shot every single night,” guard Dominique Ennis said. “Why stop what we’ve been so good at all year, which is fighting through adversity.”
Up Next: American Conference Tournament Championship Game (Sat. Mar. 14 at 8:30 pm)