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Rice Basketball survives Northwestern State in OT

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Rice Basketball needed overtime to eek out a win over Northwestern State, but the Owls found a way to hang on.

Things were never comfortable at Tudor Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon. Even though Rice basketball had never lost to Northwestern State in 11 previous meetings, the Demons made sure they did everything they could to jeopardize that streak.

Rice scored first, but never led by more than seven points in the first half, allowing Northwestern State to pull even on two separate occasions. In fact, Northwestern State went more than 59 minutes without seeing a lead, trailing by as many as 13 points midway through the second half when Denver Anglin drained one of a trip of threes.

More: Rice Basketball 2024-2025 Season Preview

From there, though, the comeback was on. The Demons responded with a 13-4 run to get back in the game and took their very first lead of the contest with 48 seconds on the clock. Kellen Amos would knock down three free throws to go back in front by two, only for Northwestern State to take the lead again on another three, this time with 6.2 seconds left in regulation.

Amos leveled the score with another free throw, but missed what would have been the game clinching shot from the charity stripe and the game went to overtime. In OT, it was Alem Huseinovic who hit a three with 1:01 to play to give Rice some breathing room before Rice made one final defensive stand to hang on for the win and improve to 3-1 on the season.

Final Box | Rice 77, Northwestern State 75

What They’re Saying

We’re obviously on a journey trying to become a good team. We’re not there yet, but the mark of a good team is that when you are in close, hard-fought games, that you can find a way to win. Whenever you do that, it becomes a frame of reference. To have a game like that early in the year, where a lot of things went against us late in the game, missed free throws, turnovers, and some good one-and-one play by (Northwestern State), when things looked bleak we still found a way to fight our way back. It’s a credit to our guys that we have this frame of reference. – Rice basketball head coach Rob Lanier

Key takeaway | Winning Ugly Works For Now

Rice basketball doesn’t have a longer active winning streak against any other Division 1 opponent on the hardwood. Losing to Northwestern State on Saturday wouldn’t have been a fatal blow, but it would have marred a season that’s shown so much promise despite the obvious growing pains. Lanier hasn’t hid from those warts, but they’re still painful to grow past in real time.

Because Rice did win, they start 3-1 for the first time since 2021-2022. They snapped a three-game losing streak in overtime and found a way to win on a day when so much wasn’t going their way. Winning every game by 50 would be nice, but if that’s not going to happen, the end result is the most important factor to replicate. Especially right now as this team learns to win well, a win is a win.

Up Next: at Louisiana (Tues, Nov. 19)

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Rice Women’s Basketball coasts past Houston

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Rice Women’s Basketball built an early lead and stayed locked in for four quarters, coasting past rival Houston at home.

After a minor setback in their season opener, Rice women’s basketball is gaining momentum and living up to their preseason billing as an AAC favorite. On Thursday night, it took the Owls just over a quarter to establish a double-digit lead over rival Houston, showcasing a strong defensive effort that effectively stifled the Cougars’ offense.

Rice held Houston to 34.8 percent shooting in the first half, building a lead that grew to as many as 15 points. Freshman Aniah Alexis was the catalyst early on, scoring eight of her nine points before halftime and giving the Owls some offensive consistency along the way.

“The stage is not too big. The lights aren’t too bright,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said of Alexis. “She’s confident in herself. She’s done the work.”

More: Rice Women’s Basketball 2024-2025 Season Preview

Alexis and the Owls charged into the second half, countering every challenge the Cougars threw their way. Houston managed to close the gap to just six points briefly, but Rice answered with a decisive 6-0 run, pushing their lead back to double digits and effectively silencing any hopes of a Cougar comeback. From there Dominique Ennis and Sussy Ngulefac took over, scoring 15 of the Owls’ 24 second-half points.

After a layup at the 6:11 mark, Houston went cold, failing to score another field goal for the next six minutes, save a meaningless three at the buzzer in an already decided game. Once more, it was the Rice women’s basketball defense that sealed the game as the Owls improved their season record to 3-1.

Final Box | Rice 60, Houston 48

What They’re Saying

That was a good win. A good win for this team, a good win for this university and a good win for this city. It’s an incredible game for us to be playing, we should be playing it every single year as we have done the last couple of years. It’s good for women’s basketball. It was good for us tonight. We built upon what we did last game. [In] the last game we won all but one media and did exactly the same thing again tonight. I thought we came out with the aggressiveness and intensity and really set the tone for what the game was going to look like. Everything wasn’t perfect, but we had energy, we had toughness and we had togetherness, and I’m really proud of our team. – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | A new season

Last season, Rice and Houston battled to overtime, with the Cougars edging out a home victory. But after Thursday’s game, it’s hard to believe how much has changed for both programs. Since then, Houston has struggled, finishing second-to-last in the Big 12, while Rice has soared—winning the AAC Tournament and securing an NCAA Tournament berth.

Throughout the offseason, head coach Lindsay Edmonds emphasized the heightened expectations for the Owls this year. While a single game doesn’t predict the season’s outcome, the 2024-2025 Rice squad did more than just edge past a struggling team—they comfortably cruised past their rivals.

ESPN’s in-game win probability never dipped below 78 percent after the end of the first quarter and was above 95 percent for the entire fourth frame. It certainly looks like Edmonds is coaching with that level of urgency. Up by 13 points at the half, her focus never waivered. “I think we can turn it up even more,” she declared.

For a team with NCAA Tournament aspirations, this is exactly the attitude they need. After shaking off early-season rust, Rice is starting to look like the force they were projected to be.

Up Next: vs Sam Houston (Sun, 11/17)

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Smothering defense lifts Rice Basketball past Louisiana Monroe

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A historic defensive effort powered Rice Basketball past Louisiana Monroe, who barely reached 50 points in a losing effort.

Defense took center stage at Tudor Fieldhouse on Tuesday evening. Rice basketball and the visiting Louisiana Monroe Warhawks started the game a combined 5-for-27 by the second media timeout, an underwhelming 19 percent from the floor. Regression would find both teams eventually and the shots began to fall, but it wouldn’t be a banner night for either side when it came to scoring the basketball.

“We want it to be characteristic of our program that defense is at the forefront of what we do without compromising on how we want to play on offense,” head coach Rob Lanier said. “But sometimes when you’re establishing that, one thing winds up taking priority and the offense has to catch up with that because if you really get good at keep getting the ball back then what you do with it matters.”

Because of those low margins, the game was close throughout. A three from Alem Huseinovic in the final seconds of the first half gave Rice basketball a seven-point advantage, the largest lead for either side before the break. In fact, Huseinovic’s 11 points doubled up everyone else on the court. No other player had more than five points when the halftime buzzer sounded. It was just going to be that kind of game: tough and physical.

More: Rice Basketball 2024-2025 Season Preview

Rice’s effort began to shine through in earnest once the second half began. Louisiana Monroe missed their first two shots. Rice missed their first. Then Jimmy Oladokun Jr. made a leaping play on the baseline to corral a loose ball and deflect it off the leg of a Louisiana Monroe defender. That allowed Rice to maintain possession, setting Huseinovic up for a crucial three and propelling the Owls to an 11-point advantage.

That it was Oladokun was fitting to the culture this team is trying to build. Laner said postgame that Oladokun was in the lineup because he’d earned a greater role in practice this week and with his contributions against Florida State following only seeing two minutes in the Owls’ opener against FIU.

Louisiana Monroe wasn’t going to go away that easily. On the strength of a 7-0 run, the Warhawks got back within three but couldn’t get any closer. The Owls mounted a defense stop and quickly created impactful transition points, converting not one, but two massive alley-oop dunks, the first by Andrew Akuchie and the next by Kellen Amos to put Rice in front by 12.

The high-flying plays were celebrated by the entire arena, including the Owls’ bench. No matter who was on the court — and Rice basketball played 14 players on Tuesday night — the energy was inescapable.

“As a group, you’re starting to see a group of guys that are really pulling for one another and just putting the team first,” Lanier said. “We’ve got an acronym, INAM. It simply means ‘it’s not about me’ and we want them to live that as teammates. We want them to believe in that. And that is how you establish a defensive culture and it’s how you establish a real winning program culture. It’s starting to take effect. We’re just at the beginning and we haven’t had enough adversity to know if it really is who we are just yet.

Final Box | Rice 66, FSU 50

What They’re Saying

Key takeaway | Defense

Through the early days of the 2024-2025 Rice basketball season, Lanier has used words like “scattered” and out of rhythm when referring to the Owls’ scoring efforts. He’s attributed much of that inefficiency to the learning curve of players learning his offense and how they fit together things that should, in theory, get better over time as the team begins to accrue more court time together.

Lanier ran through a list of talented shooters he remains confident in like Trey Patterson and Denver Anglin, former top 100 recruits who had career highs today after seeing lighter usage early this season. He touted Jacob Darr’s offensive game, too. But all of the offensive praise came with this important caveat: “He’s a really good offensive player. He doesn’t get to do what he wants to do until he does what I want him to do.”

While the Owls wait for the offense, the defense has emphatically arrived. Pitted against a more traditional opponent which doesn’t switch or play as exotic of a scheme as either of their first two opponents, Rice flat-out suffocated Louisiana Monroe. The 50 points scored by Louisiana Monroe was the lowest total Rice basketball has allowed against a D1 team since February 11, 2012 (SMU).

“Ever since Rob Lanier came and took over the head coaching job he’s been very intense on defense, he’s been very minded on defense as his priority,” Alem Huseinovic, who led the team with 15 points said. “All summer, preseason, into the season now, that’s really what we focus on. We want to change the narrative here at Rice and I think we did a really good job tonight.”

On three separate occasions, Louisiana Monroe missed six or more consecutive shots including eight straight misses following their opening bucket to start the game.

Up Next: vs Northwestern State (Sat, Nov. 16)



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Rice Women’s Basketball posts strong win over South Alabama

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Rice Women’s Basketball snagged the lead early and never let up, controlling their win over South Alabama from start to finish on Monday night.

South Alabama led for the briefest of moments at Tudor Fieldhouse on Monday night, edging in front of Rice women’s basketball in the early moments by a 7-6 score that wouldn’t last for much longer. Hailey Adams gave Rice the lead soon afterward on a layup and the Owls’ advantage would only grow from there.

Rice got the lead up to eight points at the end of the first quarter on a three from Aniah Alexis. Then in grew to 13 points on a free from Jazzy Owens-Barnett to close out the second frame. Staked to a double-digit lead, Rice doubled down, growing their advantage to as many as 19 points in the third quarter on a five-point spurt from Aniah Alexis.

More: Rice Women’s Basketball 2024-2025 Season Preview

South Alabama’s late rally proved not enough. The Jaguars hit a pair of threes early in the fourth quarter to get the margin back to 10, but Rice had an immediate answer of their own. Victoria Flores hit a three then scored on a fastbreak layup on the next possession to restore a healthy margin. Flores, Adams and Shelby Hayes combined to score all 21 of the Owls’ points in the final period, slamming the door on South Alabama to secure a second consecutive Rice women’s basketball win.

What They’re Saying

“It’s great to stack back-to-back wins. I’m really proud of our team’s effort. I always think we are at our best when we have multiple in double figures. Tonight, we were able to get five in double figures. I feel like [Klaczek] really ignited us tonight and gave us that spark that we needed and that spark that she can provide and spark that she’s done for this team so many times. She started it, and everyone kind of followed suit. I was also very pleased with our defensive willpower. We put our foot down and forced 21 turnovers and had 11 steals, so that was very good for us. Overall, really happy with the win, stacking back-to-back wins, and ready for more.” – Rice Women’s Basketball head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Final Box | Rice 76, South Alabama 58

Key takeaway | No Fuss

Building leads is nothing new for Rice women’s basketball. Under head coach Lindsay Edmonds te Owls have always been able to throw the first punch. It’s sustaining that advantage through four quarters that has been the next step this squad needs to take to go from good to great and achieve the lofty aspirations they’ve set on themselves for this season. Monday’s victory over South Alabama showcased just that.

It wasn’t a perfect finish — South Alabama did cut the lead in half — but when you’ve grown the margin to 19, there’s some room to absorb imperfections and still win comfortably. By the midpoint of the fourth quarter, this one was never in doubt and that’s exactly what Rice needed to get from this opening homestand, a comfortable win.



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Rice Basketball comes up short against Florida State

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Rice Basketball kept things close but couldn’t get enough shots to fall late, picking up their first loss of the season against Florida State.

Florida State came out swinging and immediately put Rice basketball on the defensive at the Toyota Center on Saturday night, shooting a blistering 76 percent from the field in the first 10 minutes and forcing the Owls to match their torrid pace.

A 7-0 run from the Noles was the Owls’ first test. Rather than rely on any one player, Rice saw contributions up and down the lineup to keep the game within reach. On this occasion, it was Jacob Dar and Trey Patterson who came through with the key layups to get back within four. That was the point when both sides seemed to settle down and the Rice defense was able to set its defense and play the style of game they wanted to play.

Florida State saw their shooting percentage drop from the high 70s to the 40s and their fouls tick upward. After hitting 10 of their first 13 field goals, the Noles missed their next eight shots. A simultaneous shooting slump from the Owls squashed any chance of a rally, but the defensive effort kept Rice afloat until Florida State snapped out of their stupor, a moment which unfortunately came before the Rice offense had recharged.

Rice was held to one field goal in the final eight minutes of the first half, allowing Florida State to go on a 9-3 run and extend their lead to 10 points at the break.

More: Rice Basketball 2024-2025 Season Preview

Alem Huseinovic and Trae Broadnax kicked the team into gear in the second half, knocking down a trio of three-pointers, almost instantaneously evaporating the Florida State lead which shrank to 33-32 in roughly two minutes of play.

Both teams traded baskets and fouls late into the second half, but that crucial spurt of three-point success proved to be the exception, not the rule. Rice would miss 11 of their next 12 three-pointers, slowly watching a close game fade away with each successive clank off the iron. 12 missed free throws didn’t help the cause, either. The box score shows a comfortable Florida State win, but Rice had a real chance to make this one interesting.

“From an overall team connectivity standpoint, we have something good there,” guard Trae Broadnax said postgame. “That’s where we’re close and we just have to lock in on the things that plagued us like the free throws, like the turnovers, like the execution on both ends of the floor so that we can put it together. It’s November. We’ve still got a long ways to go.”

Final Box | FSU 73, Rice 65

What They’re Saying

Key takeaway | Free Throw Woes

There’s been a lot of good to take from the Rob Lanier era of Rice basketball through two games and a 1-1 start. The defensive effort is improved and the effort has been impressive on both ends of the court. The most glaring deficiency that cost the Owls in both games so far? Free throws.

Rice missed 15 free throws against FIU and missed 12 free throws against Florida State. Shooting 100 percent from the charity stripe is unrealistic and even making every foul shot wouldn’t have saved the Owls on Saturday night, but this game takes on a different feel if they make them at a more realistic clip. That change might not be coming soon.

“Today was my 1,091st game coaching division one [basketball] and I’ve never worked with — and I worked with two hall of fame coaches — or been a great free throw coach. Billy Donovan was not a good free throw coach. Rick Barnes was not a good free throw coach and neither am I,” Lanier admitted.

Lanier’s final SMU squad made just 68.6 percent of their free throws last season. The 2024-2025 Owls are sitting at 60.8 percent through two games. Neither of those numbers is going to be better than the bottom quartile of the country.

Lanier acknowledged the challenge but kept a positive spin on things. “Witchcraft. Pixie dust. Burn some sage in the gym,” he joked. “We’ll try some different stuff.”

Rice basketball might never be an elite free throw shooting team. But getting the Owls back to the middle of the back would go a long way.

Up Next: vs Louisiana Monroe (Tues)



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