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WBB: No. 25 Owls lock up regular season CUSA Title

February 23, 2019 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice women’s basketball turned a third quarter deficit into their 16th consecutive victory, coming from behind to defeat North Texas and clinch the regular season CUSA Title.

For the first time since joining Conference USA, Rice women’s basketball are regular season conference champions. The Owls last achieved a regular season title in 2005 while members of the WAC, the only other conference title in program history.

To do it, Rice needed to stage a comeback. Trailing by three at halftime, the deficit grew to as many as seven before Rice thundered back. Nancy Mulkey led the charge with 24 points and three blocks. Nicole Iademarco connected on three triples and Erica Ogwumike grabbed six rebounds, three on the offensive glass. It was another all-around team effort, something Rice has come accustom to in recent weeks. They’d win by a final margin of 59-47.

Winning the regular season conference title secures Rice the top seed throughout the conference tournament. The first round bye is a plus, but the path beyond that is less important; the Owls’ resume speaks for itself. If they’re able to cut through their first batch of postseason games like they’ve been able to cruise through conference play, they’ll secure an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Then the dance begins.

There are two kinds of teams the blue blood programs don’t want to face in the NCAA Tournament. Red-hot three-point shooting squads are scary — look at what 16-seed UMBC did to 1-seed Virginia on 12 made three-pointers while shooting 50 percent from deep. The second team is the defensive juggernaut: that’s Rice.

Defense travels. That’s the most intriguing, and at least to outsiders, the most terrifying aspect of this surging team. They’ve held every conference opponent but one, Marshall, to 51 points or fewer on their home court. That includes Western Kentucky (averaging 74 points per game), UAB (73.8) and most recently, North Texas (66.2). Rice is playing at an incredibly high level as the calendar approaches March. To this point, no other team in the conference has been able to keep up.

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Filed Under: Basketball, Archive, Featured, Women's Athletics Tagged With: Rice Women's basketball

History made! Women’s basketball ranked in Top 25 for first time ever

February 18, 2019 By Matthew Bartlett

Rice women’s basketball has made history, achieving a ranking in the AP Top 25 basketball poll for the first time in school history.

Expectations were high entering the 2018-2019 Rice women’s basketball season, and for good reason. The Owls finished 23-10 the season prior and were returning key pieces on the floor like Erica Ogwumike, Nancy Mulkey, Nicole Iademarco and others. This was supposed to be the caliber of team which contended, not only for a Conference USA Championship, but a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

The Owls haven’t secured either of those aspirations quite yet, but for the first time in school history Rice women’s basketball has been ranked in the AP Top 25. Following a pair of runaway victories against FIU and FAU over the weekend the Owls jumped into the rankings, currently as the No. 25 team in the nation.

The achievement marks the start of what the Owls hope will be a banner season in program history. The only real question is why it took so long for the nation to take notice of the incredible run under way at South Main.

Rice hasn’t lost a game since December 18, currently in the midst of a 15-game winning streak, the longest in school history. The Owls have played two games decided by fewer than 10 points in that stretch, the most recent coming in early February against a tough Old Dominion team on the road.

Other than that, Rice has blown the doors off of just about every opponent they’ve faced. Every time it looked like they might have peaked, they won again, and again, and again. Now sitting at 22-3, they don’t look to be slowing down any time soon.

Congratulations to the ladies and to head coach Tina Langley. Earning this designation is a tremendous accomplishment. May the best be yet to come.

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Filed Under: Basketball, Archive, Featured, Women's Athletics Tagged With: Rice Women's basketball

WBB: Owls seek first ever AP Top 25 ranking

February 18, 2019 By Matthew Bartlett

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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Filed Under: Basketball, Women's Athletics Tagged With: Rice Women's basketball

MBB: Loss to FAU drops Owls into elimination pod

February 16, 2019 By Matthew Bartlett

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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Filed Under: Basketball, Featured Tagged With: Rice basketball

MBB: Owls suffer stinging setback against FIU

February 15, 2019 By Matthew Bartlett

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.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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Filed Under: Basketball, Archive Tagged With: Rice basketball

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