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Bellamy, Fisher lead Rice Women’s Basketball past FIU at home

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Rice women’s basketball completed a weekend sweep of Florida schools, besting FIU at home on Saturday.

Still without leading scorer Ashlee Austin on the court, Rice women’s basketball didn’t have much trouble notching their second straight home victory. After a low-scoring opening quarter, Rice heated up quickly with a 24-outburst in the second frame, taking an eight-point lead into halftime.

India Bellamy and Malia Fisher were instrumental in helping Rice build their initial lead and then extending it to as many as 15 points in the second half. FIU would cut the margin back down to five points at the midpoint of the fourth quarter, but a layup from Bellamy and a three from Fisher pushed the Rice advantage quickly back to double-digits and helped secure the victory.

Rice has now won back-to-back games and sits at fourth in the conference standings with six games remaining in the regular season.

Final Box | Rice 67 – FIU 58

Key takeaway | Bellamy block party

Bellamy finished one point shy of tying a career-high in points, but it was her defense that was perhaps even more significant on Saturday afternoon. She led the team in defensive rebounds (five) and finished with four blocked shots, that’s a lot. For reference, Rice has only exceeded that total as a team on three occasions this year (they had five total against Sam Houston, WKU and their prior game against FIU).

“I’m really proud of India, her efforts are through the roof, the way that she has just been grinding, and even in those four-point games and five-point games, she was still impacting our team,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “But obviously the offensive side of the ball, we really need it right now and she’s doing a great job at stepping up where the team needs her the most.”

Up Next: at UTSA – Thursday, Feb. 16 at 7:00 p.m.

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Rice Women’s Basketball runs away from FAU late

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Rice women’s basketball took care of business at home, downing FAU in runaway fashion at Tudor Fieldhouse.

Just past the midpoint of conference play, Rice women’s basketball needed to find a way to take care of home court against a 5-8 FAU squad on Thursday night. It was the road Owls who delivered the first blow, though, jumping out to an 8-0 run before Rice was able to find the scoreboard.

Rice battled back quickly, finishing the first quarter on a 22-6 run and held serve in the second frame, taking a two-point lead into the half. It was the third quarter when Rice made its’ move, slowly building up from a 36-36 tie to an 11-point lead as the fourth quarter began. Then the hometown team really started to pour it on.

The Owls emptied the benches, turning a modest double-digit lead into a 20-plus-point shellacking. 12 different Rice players saw action, including minutes for Haylee Swayzee, Ashlyn Zhang and Fatou Samb, the three of which had combined to play 88 total minutes this season. It was officially cleanup time in the most dominant conference win for Rice women’s basketball this season

“It was amazing, it was fun. It makes basketball fun when you get to see the people you’re with 24/7 go in the games and play,” forward India Bellamy said. “It was also relaxing not to be stressed out.”

Final Box | Rice 85 – FAU 64

Key takeaway | Starting lineup shakeup

Rice women’s basketball has largely maintained the same starting five throughout the season. Once Maya Bokunewicz went down in the second game of the season it’s been Ashlee Austin, Katelyn Crosthwait, Malia Fisher, Destiny Jackson and Trinity Gooden taking the court as the first five night in and night out. That’s not how the Owls lined up on Thursday night.

Crosthwait wasn’t in the starting lineup and entered the game in the second quarter. Austin did not play at all. When asked for clarification on those decisions, head coach Lindsay Edmonds called it a “family matter” that she wanted to keep inside the locker room.

“I said it was going to be about what people showed me in practice. That was where the mixups kinda came from,” Edmonds said, referring to a challenge she gave the team last week. She added Austin is not injured and her availability going forward would depend on “what’s shown on the court.”

Being without their leading scorer didn’t seem to phase the Owls on the court, though. Rice scored 85 points, their highest against a conference opponent this season, getting big contributions off the bench from India Belammay and Jazzy Owens-Barnett.

Up Next: vs FIU – Saturday, Feb. 11 at 1:00 p.m.

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Rice Basketball runs out of time against against FAU

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Rice basketball hangs around but can’t do more than that, falling to league-leading FAU on the road, their fourth straight defeat.

Another slow start accompanied Rice basketball to the Sunshine State on Thursday night. Rice fell behind against FAU 16-8, opening the game shooting a miserable 23 percent from the floor. They would eventually get the shots to start falling, but not before FAU ripped off a 15-3 run to push their advantage to 13 points midway through the first half.

Down by double-digits against the best team in the conference, Rice began its comeback. Quincy Olivari delivered back-to-back threes to get things going. Mekhi Mason closed the half with his first triple of the contest, shrinking the FAU lead to six.

Rice would get within five a few times in the second half but never got closer. The FAU lead would ping-pong back and forth between five and 10, but Rice couldn’t hit that next shot and make it a one-possession game. Far too often those missed threes turned into fast break points for the other side before Rice, eventually, ran out of time.

Final Box | FAU 91 – Rice 80

Key takeaway | Making the grade

After a tough stretch that featured three consecutive losses, Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera made it clear his team needed to play what he termed their “A-game” if they were going to win games in a challenging conference. It was going to take that good of a game and then some if the Owls were going to walk into Boca Raton and upset the conference frontrunners.

Rice did not pull off the upset, but they carried themselves much more like a team that belonged on the same court as the other Owls than they had in the past few games. Pera’s squad heard the message. While it might not have been an A-game, it was at least a B-minus.

There are no more victories. Rice basketball is running out of time. But if they’re going to win a few more down the stretch, playing at this level (41 percent from three, 85 percent from the line) is a prerequisite. Limiting the offensive boards and playing stronger in the paint will go a long way toward that achieving those ends.

Up Next: at FIU – Saturday, Feb. 11 at 6:00 p.m.

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Conference USA Basketball 2023: early-February Roundup

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Conference USA Basketball is in the middle of the conference slate. Here’s where each team stands in early February.

Team NET  KenPom Record
Charlotte 106 119 13-10 (4-8)
FAU 18 34 22-2 (12-1)
FIU 206 211 12-12 (6-7)
LA Tech 143 141 13-10 (6-6)
MTSU 109 120 15-9 (8-5)
North Texas 57 64 19-5 (10-3)
Rice 152 169 15-8 (6-6)
UAB 72 71 17-7 (8-5)
UTEP 174 175 11-12 (4-8)
UTSA 318 317 7-18 (1-13)
WKU 177 168 13-11 (5-8)
Kenpom, NET, and standings reflect games as of 2/6/2023

Key Storylines

FAU mortal

Florida Atlantic suffered its first and only Conference USA loss this past week to UAB. Not only did it knock the Owls from their unbeaten perch in league play, but they dropped from the AP Top 25 as well and saw their possible NCAA Tournament at-large opportunities take a sizable dent in the process. The Owls are by no means out of the driver’s seat in the league, but they’re no longer untouchable.

Just add Jelly

UAB started slowly in conference play and looked mediocre at times in games without their star Jordan “Jelly” Walker on the court. But he returned against Florida Atlantic, paving the way for the Blazers’ upset of the Owls and subsequent win over FIU two days later. UAB is a different team with him on the court and one that will pose a threat to all comers down the stretch.

Separation starting at the top?

UAB’s big weekend elevated the Blazers to 8-5 in conference play, tied for third in the standings with Middle Tennessee. North Texas (10-3) and FAU (12-1) sit above them, but there’s a multi-win gap between that top four and the rest of the conference. Rice and Louisiana Tech are both at .500, but they each still have multiple games remaining against FAU. After a muddled midseason, an upper-tier may be starting to emerge.

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Former Rice Football DL Ikenna Enechukwu shines at Shrine Bowl

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Former Rice football defensive lineman Ikenna Enechuwku impressed at the East-West Shrine Bowl this week, showcasing his talents in front of NFL scouts and draft analysts.

Hosted every winter, the East-West Shrine Bowl is the longest-running college all-star football game in the nation. Collegiate standouts get a week of hands-on practice and interviews with NFL coaching staff, culminating in an exhibition game to showcase their skills. For NFL hopefuls, it’s an extremely important event, one which former Rice Football defensive lineman Ikenna Enechukwu took full advantage of this week.

Hosted in Las Vegas, NV as a part of the NFL Pro Bowl Week, members of the coaching staffs of the Atlanta Falcons and New England Patriots provide hands-on instruction and coached the players during the week and the game itself. Interfacing with NFL personnel is one of the most important benefits of the week, but making your mark on the field is important, too.

Enechuwku drew rave reviews all week. Here’s a sampling of what NFL evaluators and analysts were saying about his performance and potential pro future.

Compliments were everywhere. Pro Football Network’s Ian Cummings called Enechukwu a “violent, hyperactive rusher with length” also adding that he was “consistently disruptive with his prying length and high-energy athleticism.” Enechukwu got a shout-out in the New England Patriots’ postgame takeaways for this pressure which set up a sack.

The NFL Draft takes place on Thursday, April 27 and runs through Saturday, April 29. Enechukwu hopes to be the first Rice football player drafted since defensive lineman Christian Covington was selected by the Houston Texans in the sixth round of the 2015 NFL Draft.

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