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Owls drop Conference USA opener to North Texas

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Rice basketball gave one of the best teams in Conference USA, North Texas, a serious scare before running out of gas in both squad’s first conference game of the season.

With just under five minutes remaining in the first half Rice led the 12-win North Texas Mean Green by 11 points at Tudor Fieldhouse. It seemed like the holiday break had done this team some good and the Owls were clicking on both sides of the ball. Then North Texas ended the half on a 17-1 run, flipping the script and putting Rice in comeback mode. They never recovered.

A five-point deficit widened over the second half. When the final buzzer sounded, Rice had fallen by the final score of 103-87.

Streaky shooting went in favor of the Mean Green in this one. The Owls’ opponent connected on seven of their last eight shots in the first half and five of their first six shots in the second half. Those two runs coincided with 12 consecutive misses from the field for Rice.

Entering the game with a 5-8 record, Rice needed to show they were ready for a tough conference slate. The loss is discouraging, but outside of one bad 10-minute stretch of play, the Owls stood toe-to-toe with one of the conference’s best teams. They’re going to have to play a full 40 minutes if they want to turn those “almosts” into wins, but this was a positive first step.

Player of the game – Robert Martin

Chris Mullins has been the engine who makes this offense go, but his 10-point, four assist effort was overshadowed by Robert Martin’s monster game. In three prior games against North Texas, Martin combined for 12 total points. On Saturday the junior forward had a magic touch. He knocked down 9-of-11 shots and all 12 of his free throw attemps, tallying a career-best 35 points.

Up Next – Southern Miss

Rice stays home for the next conference tilt, hosting Southern Miss (8-5) on Thursday, Jan. 3. Tip off is scheduled for 3 p.m. Southern Miss is coming off their first CUSA game, a loss to Louisiana Tech.

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Rice Athletics 2018: A Year in Review

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Rice athletics produced some memorable moments in 2018. Here’s an overview of how the Owls faired on the court, the field and in the gym over the past year.

Baseball

The Wayne Graham era at South Main came to an end this year. Graham’s 27-season tenure at Rice included 1,173 wins, 23 NCAA Tournament appearances, seven College World Series appearances and one National Championship in 2003. He owns the best winning percentage in school history (.689). Following the season, new head baseball coach Matt Bragga was introduced as the Owls’ next manager.

Basketball (men’s and women’s)

The men have a  roster filled with young players who have fought through growing pains in 2018. The Owls won seven games last season and enter CUSA play with five wins already under their belt.

After making it to the second round of the WNIT last March, the women’s team started strong again in the 2018-2019 season. The squad went 8-3 in non-conference play with one game remaining on Dec. 29 and has aspirations of a CUSA Title and an NCAA Tournament appearance.

Football

2018 was an important year for Rice football. Mike Bloomgren earned his first win regular season win and first conference win as a head coach against Prairie View and Old Dominion, respectively. Owls’ star running back Trevor Cobb was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. The team finished the year by signing 17 players during the early signing period including Jake Bailey, a Top 15 recruit in Conference USA.

Tennis (men’s and women’s)

The women’s team earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament, dropping a heartbreaker to Texas A&M in the Austin Regional. The men failed to make the NCAA Tournament, but Eric Rutledge and Sumit Sarkar were awarded All-CUSA First Team honors in doubles. Rutledge was named to the first team for singles. Sarkar was named to the second.

Soccer (women’s)

The team hung in through a tough 2018 campaign. Needing a tie in their final regular season game to clinch a spot in the CUSA Tournament, Rice topped Charlotte in the finale. The Owls finished the regular season at 4-5-1 before a loss in the conference tournament. There were a couple close calls with a 3-0 shutout of Louisiana Tech marking the top performance of the year.

Swimming (women’s)

Rice ended their year with a bang. The Owls finished second out of 31 scoring teams at the CSCAA National Invitational in March. Kaitlyn Swinney broke the school record for the 400-IM at the meet.

Volleyball

It was a banner year for the Owls’ volleyball squad. They set a program-best winning streak, reeling off 15-straight victories on their way to a Conference USA regular season championship. They’d add a CUSA Conference Championship too, thereby securing their fourth NCAA Tournament berth in school history.

Nicole Lennon, Lee Ann Cunningham and Grace Morgan were named to the CUSA First Team while Anota Adekunle and Carly Graham were selected to the CUSA All-Freshman team.

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North Texas game preview

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Rice basketball went 5-8 in non-conference play, but hope to put all of that behind them with a big win in their first CUSA game against North Texas.

The final game of 2018 marks the start of a new stretch of the season for Rice basketball. The Owls have 14 games remaining on their regular season schedule, all coming against Conference USA opponents. The next contest comes at home against North Texas on Saturday, Dec. 29. TV broadcast will be on ESPN+ with radio available on the Stretch Internet Portal.

North Texas 12-1 (0-0), Last 5 (4-1)

  • W, 77-66 vs UAPB
  • W, 74-65 @ New Mexico
  • W, 63-61 @ UT Arlington
  • W, 80-69 @ Indiana State
  • L, 73-57 @ Oklahoma

Rice 5-8 (0-0), Last 5 – (2-3)

  • L, 83-66 vs Omaha
  • W, 75-67 @ Rio Grande Valley
  • L, 99-89 (OT) vs UC Santa Barbara
  • W, 78-73 vs St Edwards
  • L, 75-68 vs Lamar

North Texas players to watch

The Mean Green enter the game with the best record among all CUSA teams thanks to a well-balanced lineup. Six different North Texas players average at least 10 points per game. Junior guard Ryan Woolridge has been the catalyst for the offense this year, scoring single-digit points three times in 13 games. He registered a triple-double earlier this month against Indiana State.

On the defensive end, sophomore forward Zachary Simmons is one of eight players in the conference averaging at least one block per game. He’s been a rebounding machine, of late, grabbed eight or more boards in for of his last five games.

Rice keys to victory

For Rice, any upset attempt is going to start with shooting. The Owls shot 35.1 percent from the field against Omaha their last time out, the second-worst shooting performance of the season. They had a season-high 36 three-point attempts but connected on just nine (25.0 percent).

Chris Mullins, who has carried this team over the last few weeks, scored a team-high 17 points against Omaha but needed someone else to step up on a tough shooting night. It’s going to take a full team performance to beat North Texas.

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Owls take stock of season entering conference play

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Rice basketball is in the midst of a rebuilding effort led by a host of young players hoping to bring success back to South Main. It’s going to take some work.

The 2018-2019 season has been filled with plenty of learning opportunities for Rice basketball. The Owls won their first three games at Tudor Fieldhouse but struggled to find their rhythm throughout the next month, sliding to a 5-8 record entering the Christmas holidays.

Five wins put the Owls in the bottom half of the conference with their first Conference USA game looming on Dec. 29 against North Texas. The Mean Green sit at 12-1. They’ll be a tough test for Rice, but the road to get there hasn’t been much easier.

Penn, Houston and Wichita State all made the NCAA Tournament last season and BYU and UCSB have both put together winning seasons so far. Rice played all five of them. “If you go down the list, that schedule has been pretty challenging,” head coach Scott Pera said following their loss to Omaha, “There’s a lot of good teams on there that we’ve had to play. Hopefully that will help us in conference [play]. That’s part of the plan.”

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The plan, as Pera refers to it, is in its developmental stages. Outside of Jack Williams, Ako Adams and Robert Martin the Owls key pieces on the floor are almost entirely freshman. Rice is led by starting guard Chris Mullins in scoring (13.1 points per game).

Fellow freshman Drew Peterson and Quentin Millora-Brown have earned starting spots with freshmen Josh Parrish and Trey Murphy III playing meaningful minutes off the bench. The youth permeating the roster is a challenge for Pera and his staff, one he hopes will pay dividends down the road. “It’s a bit like a rollercoaster,” Pera admitted, “I feel our guys are connected. I feel we have shown a lot of growth.”

The team is in the early stages of that developmental process. It’s going to take some time. Pera knows that, and he knows now is the time to press in rather than throw in the towel. “You gotta believe in your guys. You know that they’re capable… What can you do? Get back in the gym and keep working,” Pera proclaimed adamantly.

The rebuild won’t happen overnight. Rice is working and they’ll continue to be tested from this point onward. There are going to be more licks with high points mixed in. It’s going to be every bit as much the rollercoaster Pera described. The Owls will have to do their best to make sure they don’t get stuck in a loop.

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Rice WBB: Owls off to another hot start

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Rice women’s basketball is red-hot. The Owls are winners of six in a row at the midpoint of their 2018 non-conference schedule.

The 2018-2019 season has been more of the same so far for the Rice Owl’s women’s basketball squad, in many ways picking up right where they left off from a 23-10 campaign a season ago. This team was picked to finish second in CUSA in the preseason with five first place votes. Everything they’ve done to this point confirms those expectations are well within reach.

Leading the way on offense once again is Erica Ogwumike. The junior guard is averaging 19.6 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 3.1 steals per game. Rice has been buoyed by continual strong showings from Ogwumike backed by consistent production from players like Nicole Iademarco (7.4 pts, 5.0 reb, 1.9 asst) and Lauren Grigsby (9.9 pts, 2.5 reb, 56.5 percent from three)

It’s been a combined team effort, once again, leaving plenty of reasons to be hopeful about what’s to come for this team in the near future. 

After a bumpy start which featured losses to Texas A&M and UCLA, a pair of strong Power 5 teams, the Owls have reeled off six straight victories. They now sit at 6-2, with four games remaining between them and the start of conference play.

Rice gets SMU at home on Dec. 15 before traveling to the east coast for the Carolinas Challenge featuring games against North Carolina (Dec. 18) and Coastal Carolina (Dec. 20) in Myrtle Beach, SC. Then they’ll cap off 2018 with a road contest against Incarnate Word on Dec. 29. After New Year’s celebrations, they’ll take to the road once again for the start of Conference USA action against Southern Miss on Jan. 3. 

The Owls should have a strong shot at winning each of those contests. If they win all four, they’ll tie last year’s 10-2 start in nonconference play.

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