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WBB: Owls seek first ever AP Top 25 ranking

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It was another impressive weekend on the court for Rice women’s basketball. The Owls are closing in on their first national ranking.

Rice women’s basketball bludgeoned another pair of conference opponents this week, blasting FIU by 32 points on Thursday before crushing FAU by 28 points on Saturday. For the better part of two months, no one has been able to crack the Owls’ physical defense which has allowed one opponent to surpass 51 points this calendar year.

The two wins boost the Owls’ record to 22-3 (13-0 CUSA) with three regular season games remaining. At this point finishing up the schedule has become somewhat of a formality as the team readies itself for the conference tournament and hopefully an NCAA Tournament berth.

Returning to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2005 is at the forefront of the team’s mind, but it’s not the only piece of history at stake for this squad. Winners of 15 straight, Rice is seeking their first appearance in the AP Top 25. The Owls stack up favorably against those ranked just above them.

Here’s how the lower portion of the top 25 faired this week:

No. 21 FSU (1-1) – Clemson (L), Pitt (W)
No. 22 Texas A&M (1-1) – LSU (W), Mississippi State (L)
No. 23 Rutgers (0-1) – Ohio State (L)
No. 24 Michigan State (0-2) – Wisconsin (L), Nebraska (L)
No. 25 South Dakota (1-0) – Western Illinois (W)

Also receiving votes

Rice (2-0) – FIU (W), FAU (W)
Utah (0-2) – Arizona (L), Arizona State (L)
UCF (0-2) – Tulane (L), UConn (L)
Drake (1-0) – Northern Iowa (W)
UCLA (0-1) – Stanford (L)

Rice is the only one of that selection of unranked teams to finish a perfect 2-0 this week. Each of those five ranked teams above the Owls lost at least once. Rutgers is on a three game losing streak and South Dakota’s overall record, 23-3, is almost identical to the Owls.

This team has been dominant. It’s time the pollsters give Rice some well-deserved recognition.

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Baseball: Matt Bragga era begins with series win vs Rhode Island

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Rice baseball opened the Matt Bragga era with a series win over visiting Rhode Island at Reckling Park, highlighted by a walk-off wild pitch for the Owls’ first win of the season.

The Matt Bragga era on South Main is officially underway. Hired away from Tennessee Tech, Bragga was introduced in June and has been hard at work ever since. Fall ball and spring workouts have given way to real baseball, starting with the Owls’ opening weekend against Rhode Island at Reckling Park.

Rice took the series two games to one. Here’s a rundown of each game a few closing thoughts from the weekend.

FRIDAY | Rhode Island 2, Rice 1 (10 innings)

The concerns around this team during the offseason largely focused on the offensive side of the ball. Those early worries proved accurate out of the gate with as the Owls failed to give their ace Matt Canterino much support on Friday night.

Canterino was superb, tossing 6.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing three hits and one walk while striking out nine. The offense managed one run on a Trei Cruz RBI single, one of six hits on the night.

It was the defense that faltered in extra innings. Rice committed two errors in the 10th, the first of which allowed Rhode Island to score an unearned and eventual game-deciding run.

SATURDAY | Rice 7, Rhode Island 6 (13 innings)

A comfortable lead turned into a thrilling finish on Saturday, culminating in an extra-inning win, the first of the Matt Bragga era. Rice had built a 3-0 lead on a career night from starting pitcher Evan Kravetz, inserted after Addison Moss was a late scratch (wrist). Kravetz set a career high with 10 strikeouts through five innings, giving way to Dalton Wood in the sixth.

Rhode Island battled back, eventually tying the game in the top of the ninth inning, the second full inning worked by potential closer Garrett Gayle. The score would stay deadlocked at 5-5 entering extra until Rhode Island scratched across a run in the top of the 13th.

Trailing 6-5, Rice needed a spark. They got it from Dominic Cox. He was hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a wild pitch and came in to score on an errant throw to third on a Trei Cruz single. Cruz would come in to score the winning run minutes later on a passed ball, a fortunate break which capped off the five-hour contest.

SUNDAY | Rice 15, Rhode Island 3

There was no pitchers duel on Sunday. Rice matched their seven runs scored in 13 innings the game prior in the first three frames. Rhode Island starter Nick Robinson surrendered five extra-base hits, including the first two home runs of the weekend one by Trei Cruz, the other by Justin Collins.

Cruz launched a grand slam in the fifth inning, the highlight of a masterful performance at the plate. That long ball gave him eight RBI for the game, the most runs driven in by any Rice player since Anthony Rendon tallied eight RBI against Cal in 2010.

On the mound, Jackson Parthasarathy moved quickly mowing down Rhode Island hitters left and right. He matched the strong starts from Canterino and Kravetz, going six innings while allowing one hit, no runs and striking out eight.

After the slow start, Sunday’s runaway win gave this team a nice boost of confidence headed into two important midweek games against Texas and Arizona.

TAKEAWAYS | Rice wins series 2-1

1. Rice pitching was as good as advertised

There will be much more threatening visiting lineups in Reckling Park this year. Rhode Island was a young, mostly unproven group from the northeast and Rice met them with an experienced group of hurlers. It should have been a dominant outing by the Rice pitching staff. For the most part, it was.

Through three games, Rice starters hold a season ERA of 0.00. The combination of Canterino, Kravetz and Parthasarathy allowed seven hits, two walks and zero runs while striking out 27 over 17.1 innings pitched.

It wasn’t just a good weekend for the rotation. Kendal Jeffries and Kel Bordwine were both strong out of the pen. Jeffries relieved Canterino on Friday night, throwing 3.2 innings with six strikeouts and four hits. Bordwine carried the Owls through three extra frames on Saturday. Despite being charged with the go-ahead run allowed by Zach Esquivel, he allowed three hits with two strikeouts, facing 13.

Bragga had high praise for his pitchers, saying “They’re giving our offense a chance to find our identity right now.” It took every bit of success from the Owls on the bump to match Rhode Island on Friday and Saturday. Sunday, the offense took over.

2. The offense is a work in progress, but there’s plenty to work with

Active baserunning, hit and runs, a squeeze play at home and the long ball were all part of the repertoire for the Rice offense on opening weekend. Bragga expects the offense to become more cohesive as the season progresses, but for now, he’s going to continue to experiment.

“I’m learning this team. I’m learning these guys and trying to figure out what’s best suited for us to score runs,” Bragga said. “We’ll do whatever it takes to get those runs in because are pitching staff is throwing really well.”

Cruz was the offensive MVP of the weekend, leading the team with eight hits, including two home runs and two triples on Saturday, and 10 RBI. Dominic DiCaprio and Cade Edwards had a pair of doubles. Bradley Geniting had six hits, scoring five times. Four Owls (Gneiting, T. Cruz, Collins, Edwards) leave opening weekend with a batting average better than .300.

3. The fielding must get better

The pitchers shined and the offense showed flashes, leaving the errors with the gloves the most glaring concern of the weekend.

Rice committed seven errors on the weekend. If they play clean baseball the series could very well have ended in a sweep. When the offense is firing on all cylinders they’ll have the wiggle room to work past the occasional fielding mistake. For now, it’s even more imperative the team tightens up their fielding.

Both of the first two games were decided by errors with the deciding runs coming for each squad via fielding miscues. Even with a sizable lead on Sunday, Rice couldn’t come up with a clean sheet.

ON DECK | vs Texas (Tues), vs Arizona (Wed), vs UC-Irvine (Fri.-Sun.)

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MBB: Loss to FAU drops Owls into elimination pod

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Rice basketball dropped their final game to FAU before pod play, setting up a series of elimination games before the conference tournament in Frisco.

An up and down season saw another dip in Florida on Saturday. Rice basketball suffered their second consecutive road loss, falling to FAU 60-41. The loss drops the Owls to 5-9 in conference play this season.

A new wrinkle to the schedule in 2019, the final slate of games will be decided in pod play based on conference record. Teams that finish first through fifth in the conference standings will be in the first pod. Sixth through tenth seeds will be in the second pod. The final four teams, Rice included, will play in the lowest pod.

The uppermost pods are meant to enhance the strength of schedule for the conference’s top teams. No matter how each teams fairs in pod play, they’ll all be guaranteed a spot in the conference tournament. The same isn’t true for the Owls’ pod.

The Conference USA tournament has 12 spots to assign from 14 teams. That means the four teams in the bottom pod are playing for the final two spots in Frisco. Rice will battle it out with Middle Tennessee, Charlotte and UTEP in a series of four games.

Rice has defeated Charlotte and Middle Tennessee already this season. The Owls dropped a road contest to UTEP on a controversial call for which the conference issued an apology.

The team has had some bad outings over the course of the last two months, but the majority of their games have come down to the final minutes. If they play to their potential, Rice can finish in the top two of their pod and qualify for the conference tournament. Another series of games like Saturday, though, and the Owls will see their season end sooner than they’d like.

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MBB: Owls suffer stinging setback against FIU

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Excessive turnovers proved too much to overcome for Rice basketball as they fell on the road to FIU by a final score of 86-65.

It had been more than a month since Rice basketball had lost a game in regulation by more than four points. 3-3 over their last six, it looked like this young team was starting to iron out some of their inconsistencies. The Owls were playing their best basketball of the year as the calendar turned into the spring.

Thursday night’s dud against FIU was far from the standard this team had established for itself over the last month. Rice outrebounded FIU (42-29) and outshot FIU from the floor (44.4 percent – 44.1 percent). But all that good could erase a stunning season-high 33 turnovers, nearly doubling their previous high of 17.

Winning on the road isn’t easy, especially in conference play. But Rice did themselves no favors against a middle-of-the-road FIU squad which had lost four of it’s previous five.

The Box

PLAYER FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF PTS
J. Williams 4-8 0-0 0-0 1 3 4 0 0 0 5 3 8
Q. Millora-Brown 7-9 0-0 0-0 7 9 16 2 1 2 2 3 14
C. Mullins 2-8 0-2 1-2 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 1 5
J. Parrish 4-6 0-0 5-8 2 2 4 0 2 0 5 3 13
A. Adams 2-5 1-3 0-0 0 3 3 1 2 0 6 3 5
R. Martin 1-7 0-2 6-6 1 6 7 3 2 1 3 2 8
T. Harrison 0-0 0-0 2-2 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 2
P. Moore 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 0 1 4 0
T. Murphy III 3-6 2-5 0-0 0 1 1 0 1 2 2 0 8
D. Peterson 1-3 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 1 2

Player of the Game – Quentin Millora-Brown

Even in defeat, the Owls’ freshman forward took significant strides in his offensive game. Shooting 7-for-9 from the field on any given night is huge, but adding a game-high seven offensive rebounds to that percentage is almost absurd. For reference, FIU grabbed 10 offensive boards as a team.

Millora-Brown is gaining confidence in his shot. If he can consistently score in the paint, the Rice offense is going to become that much more lethal. His double-double against FIU is a good start.

Up next

Rice closes out their Florida road trip with a Saturday contest against FAU. The others Owls of Conference USA edged North Texas at home on Saturday 57-47 and have won four of their last six games.

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Rice Baseball: Previewing the Rhode Island series

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Who’s ready for a weekend at Reckling Park? Rice baseball returns on Friday with a three-game series against the visiting Rhode Island Rams.

Listen online // Watch Friday (CUSA TV) // Watch Saturday (CUSA TV) // Watch Sunday (CUSA TV)

For baseball fans, there are few words sweeter than opening day. Rice gets to experience that return to the diamond on Friday, Feb. 15 through Feb. 17 as the Owls kick off a long homestand to begin the Matt Bragga Era at South Main. Here’s what to expect from their first opponent: Rhode Island.

Projected Pitching Matchups

Friday: Matt Canterino vs Tyler Wilson
Saturday: Addison Moss vs Vitaly Jangols
Sunday: Jackson Parthasarathy vs Nick Robinson

Rhode Island Pitching

Tyler Wilson is the Rams’ ace and as such, crucial to the road team’s hopes of a series win. Last season the senior lefty had a 3.59 ERA and averaged 8.63 K/9, a top 10 mark in the A10 conference.

Wilson is a proven commodity among a pitching staff that will be extremely green. Vitaly Jangols started eight games last season, tallying 31 strikeouts and 10 walks with a 4.75 ERA. Righty Nick Robinson (14 appearances, 5.30 ERA) and lefty Jake Walker (11 appearances, 7.99 ERA) both have some starting experience and could challenge for a spot in the rotation early on this season.

Senior Mark Silvestri (18 appearances, 5.48 ERA) will anchor the Rams’ bullpen and could be in line to take over the closer role from last year’s anchor Nick Johnson.

Rhode Island Hitting

Rhode Island loses a lot of experience pitching and will turn to relatively untested arms. The same won’t be true of their lineup. Jackson Coutts was a revelation for the Rams’ offense in 2018. He led the team in batting average and RBI as a true freshman. Also returning are Sonny Ulliana and Greg Cavaliere, the only other Rams with a slugging percentage of .350 or better.

Nobody on the lineup is particularly threatening from a power standpoint. Rhode Island totaled just 11 home runs all of last season and tended to strike out, a lot. Senior Lawerence Hill led the team with 50 whiffs, somewhat offset by a team-high 23 runs scored and 10 stolen bases.

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