A dominant Rice Women’s Basketball squad ran headlong into the UTSA defense once more as the Owls dropped the American Conference Championship Game to the Roadrunners.
Rice women’s basketball was able to handle just about every team in the American Conference this season, save one: UTSA. Naturally, the Roadrunners stood between the Owls and an NCAA Tournament berth and they quickly made it clear they wouldn’t be stepping aside for the Owls’ storybook season to continue as they would have liked.
Just as they did in their prior meeting with the Owls, the Roadrunners sought out and achieved a gritty, defensive struggle, clogging up the paint and daring Rice to beat them outside. Through at least the first half, Rice was unable to do so.
UTSA led 20-13 at the break, holding Rice to an alarming 16 percent shooting from the floor, including 2-of-13 from three. Meanwhile, UTSA go their scoring inside, leaning on Cheyenne Rowe in the paint to build their early advantage.
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The basket didn’t get easier to locate after the break. Rice fell further behind in the third quarter, needing a five-point spurt to close the quarter from Jordin Blackmon to get back within 14, but there just wasn’t any more offensive firepower to be had for the Owls on the night.
Hailey Adams was the only Rice player to reach double digit points, posting a double-double in defeat, completely with a brutally honest assessment of the night as a whole.
“At the end of the day,” she said. “Stats don’t matter if you don’t win games.”
UTSA went on to win, punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. While Rice finished the night with 40 points, their lowest scoring output in a game since a loss to Oklahoma State in 2019, long before anyone on this roster was on campus.
“We weren’t just here to compete in a championship. We wanted to win another championship,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “and “Obviously disappointed in the outcome. Hats off to UTSA.”
Final Box | UTSA 54, Rice 40
What They’re Saying
We would make a couple shots, but then we would not get the stops that we needed. And then the shots would stop falling again. I felt like we just couldn’t consistently put it together. We didn’t execute the way we would like to, probably on either side of the basketball, well enough to win the game. ” – Rice Women’s Basketball head coach Lindsay Edmonds
Key takeaway | 28-5
Edmonds made her pitch to the NCAA Tournament selection committee after the game, pointing to a stellar 28-5 record as the primary reason this Rice women’s basketball team was Tournament worthy.
“We’ve not lost many games this season,” Edmonds said. “Obviously, we wanted to win today so that we could determine our fate. But I do believe we’re a team that deserves to be in the NCAA Tournament with the overall body of work that we’ve done this season. I’m hoping the committee will look at that.”
Fair or not, this is not a resume the committee is likely to look fondly on. That likely means the Owls’ season will continue in the WBIT, potentially at Tudor Fieldhouse.
“We’d definitely play in the WBIT,” Edmonds said, presuming no NCAA invitation came. “We would hope to potentially host in that.”
Up Next: WBIT