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Rice Basketball suffers last-second loss to UAB

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Rice Basketball traded blows with UAB for 40 minutes but came up one point short in the final seconds resulting in yet another painful defeat.

There was barely time to exhale at media timeouts given the breakneck speed with which Rice basketball traded blows with UAB at Tudor Fieldhouse on Wednesday evening. The visiting Blazers couldn’t miss in the opening segments of the first half, shooting 69 percent from the floor through the first eight minutes of action. The Owls weren’t far behind, starting 4-of-7 from three to keep pace with the Blazers’ blitz.

The largest lead in the first half was seven points, held by UAB with nine minutes to play. The advantage disappeared almost as quickly as the visitors had amassed it. A quick 7-0 run brought the game back to level before UAB would eventually make it to the halftime buzzer in front by just three points.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Offense

Jacob Dar would tie the game on his first shot out of the break, contributing to his second consecutive game north of 20 points and his game-leading 24 point outing that put the Owls in the driver’s seat to snap their losing skid.

With 5.7 seconds to play and Rice leading by three, Dar was on the wrong end of a foul that sent UAB to the line to shoot three. The Blazers missed the first, but another whistle on under the basket awarded additional free throws to the Blazers, who snuck ahead by one. Rice would get back to the line with less than two seconds to play, but two missed free throws sent Rice to another crushing defeat.

Final Box | UAB 90, Rice 89

Key takeaway | Unbreakable

After the three at the buzzer at Tulane, it felt as if this Rice basketball team had lost in every single heartbreaking way possible. Add one more to the list. A questionable foul call under the basket and two missed free throws to tie the game in the final seconds is about as aggravating of a gut punch as one could imagine.

But they haven’t given up. Not yet. Wednesday’s down-to-the-wire battle against the Blazers proved as much. Dar, who had every reason to despair along with his teammates, offered this rebuttal post game.

“This loss is tough for sure, but it’s not going to break us at all. We’ve been through this. Last game we went through this and we bounced back,” he said. “Nobody on our team is going to ever give up. We’re always going to give 100 percent. Every game we’re going to come out and compete. Every game we’re going to come out to win. That’s our mindset and it’s never going to drop.”

This squad is out of time to scream up the standings, but they’ve proven there isn’t anyone in this league they can’t go toe-to-toe with on the court. They’ll be the team nobody wants to play in the conference tournament in March. Before they get there, though, it would be nice to win a few basketball games.

Up Next: vs Tulsa (Sat, Feb. 22)

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Rice Baseball Tops Sam Houston in Home Opener

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Rice baseball won its home opener at Reckling Park for the first time in seven seasons, cruising past Sam Houston on a frigid Wednesday afternoon.

It wasn’t just the temperature at first pitch that was decidedly different for Rice baseball upon returning home from Puerto Rico. An undaunted group refused to let those losses linger, setting the tone with a rare four-strikeout first inning courtesy of freshman opener Blaine Brown and building from there.

Before Brown was able to hand the ball to Tucker Alch — who took over for the next seven scoreless innings — the bats had already joined in on the fun. Rice struck for three in the bottom of the first, taking full advantage of an error that kept the inning alive.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball goes winless at Puerto Rico Challenge

Landon West blasted his first career home run in the third inning and Brown delivered an RBI double at the plate to complement his strong showing on the mound. Cole Green’s first career hit in the eighth, a double ripped down the left field line, scored Treyton Rank to put the Owls ahead 6-0.

A leadoff walk issued by Garrett Stratton to open the ninth would result in the only Sam Houston run, but by then it was far too little, too late. Rice held on to win, the first victory for the Owls in a home opener at Reckling Park since 2018.

“Winning the first one at home is always important,” Alch said. “And to do it like that where we were really in control the whole game felt really good.”

What They’re Saying

What it means | Resilient

A season ago, Rice baseball took months to get on track. They began the year in a 9-24 hole that they were never able to fully escape. Better baseball down the stretch was rendered moot by a terrible beginning. The 2025 team desperately wants to avoid repeating history, which makes games like this one so crucial.

“I told this team last week, I believe in this team from the bottom of my heart, that we’re really good and we’re going to win a lot of ball games,” West said. “I’ve seen the work that we put in and I know the ball is going to flip our way more often than not.”

More: 2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

Baseball is a large sample sport. One win gains significance in aggregate when it’s added to over time. But this win opens the door to start stacking, something the Owls hope to do when USC comes to town this weekend, winners of four straight to open the year.

ON DECK | vs USC (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Women’s Basketball dominates FAU in get-right win

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Rice Women’s Basketball bounced back with a dominant defensive performance, holding FAU to a program conference-best 18.2 percent shooting from the floor.

It seemed as if neither side could find the hoop in the opening minutes of FAU’s visit to play Rice women’s basketball on Tuesday night. FAU opened 2-for-11 from the floor. Rice was worse, hitting just one of its first 11 shots. While FAU continued to see intermittent success at best from the floor, Rice used that lull as a launching point.

“We needed that one. We needed that in one in that fashion,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “We challenged them in the first media [timeout] and they responded and after that, we just kind of took off.”

Trailing 8-2 at that point, Rice would hit seven consecutive shots, turning a six point deficit into a six point advantage in the span of five minutes of court time spanning the end of the first quarter and the start of the second. Rice would go into break up by 14, what felt like a commanding advantage considering FAU’s paltry 16 total points across 20 minutes of action.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Defense

The third quarter brought more of the same, Rice defensive dominance and a steady trickle of made shots from the home team. If there was any doubt remaining in the outcome of this contest it was put to rest with a backbreaking three pointer by Dominique Ennis that put Rice in front by 19, a 44-21 margin, with 4:25 remaining in the third quarter.

That massive advantage made the fourth quarter a breeze. The Owls held serve in the final 10 minutes, limiting FAU to a meager 39 total points to secure a much-needed victory. The win brings Rice to 13-13 overall and 6-8 in AAC play.

Final Box | Rice 72, FAU 39

Key takeaway | Defensive intensity

The offense has been an odyssey for Rice women’s basketball all season long. With the regular season being measured in days rather than months, it’s hard to see those issues correcting themselves to a significant degree. So while the offense has it’s spurts and starts, the burden has fallen to the defense to set the tone.

“I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Edmonds said of the Owls’ dominant defensive showing. “That’s what we have the capabilities of doing and now that we’ve shown it we’ve got to bring it a little bit more. That’s exactly how I know that we can defend. That’s how I expect us to defend.”

To put into context just how atypical the Owls’ defensive dominance was in this game one has to dive nearly exhaust the record books. Only once in the past 20 seasons — that’s as far back game-by-game shooting data data was available at this time — has Rice held and opponent below 20 percent shooting from the field.

Rice held UTEP to 18.9 percent from the field on Feb. 1, 2007. On Tuesday night they limited FAU to 18.2 percent from the floor. That’s a mark that goes back hundreds of games, a slew of coaching staffs and beyond the renovations made to Tudor Fieldhouse in 2008. It’s the best defensive field goal percentage Rice has allowed in program history against a conference opponent.”

“I kept saying we were going to right the ship and I feel this is the first part of that, right? We want to make sure that we are going into March being as confident as we can,” Edmonds said. “We’ve got four games that are coming up that are going to be big for us and we’ve got to take them one at a time, but we took care of the first one and that was tonight.”

Up Next: vs UTSA (Sat, 2/22)

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Rice Baseball goes winless in Puerto Rico Challenge

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Rice Baseball might have enjoyed the cultural experience, but the results on the field were lacking: an 0-3 start to the season at the Puerto Rico Challenge.

FRIDAY | Villanova 10 – Rice 6

Davion Hickson worked through four scoreless innings on Friday evening, seeing his outing cut short with command issues that yielded five walks and 20 batters faced despite no runs across. Von Baker took the baton and worked a scoreless fifth before Villanova got to him for four runs in the sixth, putting the Owls in comeback mode.

Down 5-1, the Rice bats would respond in earnest the following inning Luke Smith and Treyton Rank each tallied RBI hits to level the game before freshman Blaine Brown put Rice in front, 6-5, with a screaming single to center field in the eighth. Villanova would ambush closer Garrett Stratton in the ninth, scoring five runs, rendering the Owls’ comeback moot and handing them a crushing Opening Day defeat.

SATURDAY | Michigan 5 – Rice 2

Rice baseball got a career day from Robert Fernandez in his start against Michigan, where he hurled six scoreless innings, allowing just two hits and striking out four. He left the game in line for the win courtesy of a go-ahead RBI single from Brown in the first inning. The Owls would tack on an insurance run in the eighth on an RBI ground out from Hiram Bocachica.

Leading 2-0, the bullpen faltered again. Blank allowed the first three batters to reach in the eighth, leaving the game with two on and a 2-1 Rice lead. Tom Vincent was saddled with the loss, throwing a wild pitch to advance both runners and allowing a single on the only batter he faced. Brown took over and allowed four runs, primarily from inherited runners, as the Owls fell 5-2.

SUNDAY | Virginia 7 – Rice 0

A steady trickle of Virginia runs made for a long finale to the Puerto Rico Challenge. The Hoos scored three in the second charged to JD McCracken, three more across the fifth and sixth innings charged to Austin Eppley and one final run on a sac fly against Matt Zatopek, tallying seven scores in eight trips to the plate.

More: 2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

That ninth trip wasn’t necessary for Virginia because Rice would be shut out. Virginia pitching held Rice bats to three total hits and six base runners, making any hopes of a comeback against the No. 2 team in the nation short-lived.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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Rice Women’s Basketball stumbles at Wichita State

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Rice Women’s Basketball came out strong but faltered late in another disappointing road loss to a team at the bottom of the AAC standings.

A pair of threes from Dominique Ennis and a stout presence inside from Sussy Ngulefac got Rice women’s basketball out to a strong start on the road against Wichita State on Saturday afternoon. The visiting Owls seemed to be in control of the contest before the offense evaporated in the second quarter.

Rice had been leading by six to that point but Wichita State would open the frame on a dominant 17-4 run, seizing the advantage and putting the Owls on notice that the hosting Shockers wouldn’t be going down without a fight.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Defense

The teams traded jabs in the third quarter and the early portions of the fourth before finding themselves all tied up at 50 points apiece with 2:07 to go. Wichita State would seize the moment, scoring twice in a row to put Rice on their heels.

The Owls would manage to cut the deficit to one on a three from Dominque Ennis with five seconds to play but went to the rim with one second left, running out of time and dropping their fourth game in a row.

Final Box | Wichita State 60, Rice 57

Key takeaway | Avoiding a repeat spring swoon

The enduring memory from the 2023-2024 Rice women’s basketball season will forever be a dominant run through the AAC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament berth that run subsequently earned. But that great March masked a terrible ending to the regular season with five consecutive conference losses that saw the Owls plummet in the standings.

One year late, Rice finds itself on a four-game losing streak, including defeats against Florida Atlantic and Wichita State, the current bottom dwellers in the league’s standings. The 2025 Owls have five more games, which—optimistically—could suggest a chance to right the ship. However, the current iteration of this team finds itself in a rut with not clear answers.

Wins are the most surefire cure. Starting that next Tuesday when they return to Tudor Fieldhouse for a three-game homestand is an absolute must if they want any chance of avoiding a repeat fall down the conference ranks.

Up Next: vs Florida Atlantic (Tues, 2/18)

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