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Rice Women’s Basketball: The most unselfish team in (the) America(n)

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Rice women’s basketball isn’t led by one singular star, instead leaning on a deep roster that shares the ball and just keeps winning games.

Rice women’s basketball is not your conventional team, at least not in today’s era of the sport where one superstar can take you a long way. The Owls sit within striking distance of the top spot in the AAC standings but you won’t find any individuals near the pinnacle of their respective leaderboards.

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Rice Basketball bullies UAB on the road

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Rice basketball made itself at home in Bartow Arena, blasting the hosting UAB Blazers in an onslaught that seemed out of reach by halftime.

UAB had won nine games in a row at home before Rice basketball arrived in Birmingham on Wednesday night. That streak has officially been reset, falling emphatically behind a comprehensive beatdown by a team letting out what felt like weeks of frustration on an opponent that wasn’t ready for the tidal wave that was heading their way.

Nothing seemed amiss early. UAB jumped out to a 10-3 lead behind a strong start from Efrem Johnson. Once that initial surge subsided, though, it was all Owls.

Rice would go on a 27-3 run over the span of the next eight minutes, evaporating the Blazers lead behind one of the most complete performances this team has assembled all season long. They held UAB to 24 percent shooting from the floor in the first half, pairing a stout defensive showing with big days from Mekhi Mason and Andrew Akuchie with double-digit performances from Sam Alajiki and Keanu Dawes off the bench.

“Tonight we played the best we could play in a really tough environment against a really good team, our guys were just outstanding,” head coach Scott Pera said after the big win, clearly elated.

Ahead by 25 at the break, UAB never got closer than a 16-point deficit in the second half, erased promptly by a 10-3 Rice run. Everyone got in on the scoring with Pera emptying the benches as the team neared the 100-point mark. Ifeanyi Ufochukwu would provide the final basket off the bench. On this night, 94 points would have to do.

“I just wanted us to play our best every night. That’s all I ever ask of these guys. Through all the struggles they’ve been so much fun to be around and coach,” Pera beamed. “They deserve this tonight. We’re going to enjoy it.”

Final Box | Rice 94 – UAB 71

Key takeaway | Home away from home?

In one of the most bizarre statistical phenomenons of the season, Rice basketball continues to play its best away from home. Rice has wins over Memphis, UAB, Temple and UTSA, all on the road. As the calendar nears March, they have yet to win an AAC home game.

Perhaps Rice fans need to show up wearing purple instead of blue when the Owls return home to face ECU. Maybe the team can check into a nice hotel and reenact the bus ride to the arena next time out. All jokes aside, whatever is working for Rice away from home needs to be replicated in Houston.

With only a few games left, Rice can still clinch a first round bye in the AAC Tournament. All they need to do is finish 10th in the league standings. They were on that seed line coming into Wednesday, but the win over UAB boosts the Owls’ chances. Rice plays two of their final five regular season games away from home.

Up Next: vs ECU (Saturday, Feb. 24)

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Early turnovers doom Rice Women’s Basketball at Memphis

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Rice Women’s Basketball struggled early and was unable to complete a comeback, falling to Memphis on the road.

The shots were falling early for Rice women’s basketball, but they weren’t coming often enough. Slippery hands led to an astounding 14 turnovers in the first half, forcing the visiting Owls into an uphill battle against a Memphis squad that did not return the favor.

Midway through the second quarter, the Rice offense started to slow down and Memphis began to widen the gap. The Tigers led by as many as 10 points before a well-timed three from Kennedy Clifton cut the Owls’ deficit to eight heading into halftime. Despite their struggles, they had a chance to make it a ballgame in the second half.

The tide began to turn in the third quarter. Memphis turned the ball over more than Rice who got the margin back within five points as the fourth quarter arrived. Emily Klaczek gave the Owls their first lead of the second half, but a last second shot wouldn’t fall, sending the game to overtime without the services of Malia Fisher, who fouled out near the end of regulation.

Rice made just one field goal in extra time. Memphis made three, pulling back in front of the Owls to hand them a costly road loss.

Final Box | Memphis 79 – Rice 74

Key takeaway | Protect the basketball

Memphis had nine more shots than Rice on Tuesday night. The Tigers weren’t roughly as efficient as the Owls, shooting 45.5 percent from the floor to the Owls’ 47.4 percent, but what the home team lacked in efficiency they were able to make up for in volume. That’s because Rice gave the ball away way too many times, committing 22 turnovers on the night.

Even when accounting for the seven Memphis steals, the prevailing storyline was mental mistakes and unforced errors. That’s how a team like Rice, which entered the night tied for first in the win column among all AAC teams, found itself in comeback mode against a Memphis team near the bottom of the standings.

Rice is a better team than Memphis. They didn’t show that Tuesday and there are only a handful of games remaining before the wiggle room goes away. There are no mulligans in March.

Up Next: vs Temple (Sunday, Feb. 25)

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Rice basketball drops OT finish at Tulsa

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A back-and-forth battle ended with a lopsided overtime result as Rice basketball ran out of gas in extra minutes at Tulsa.

Not too far removed from a thriller that went down to the wire, Rice basketball and Tulsa produced another back-and-forth slugfest the second time around. Alem Huseinovic and Max Fiedler provided the offensive spark to get the Owls going early, but Tulsa seemed to have an answer for every Rice run.

Neither side led by more than six points in the first quarter and they were tied at the halftime buzzer. That theme continued after the break, this time with Travis Evee catching fire. He scored 16 of his team-high 21 points in the second half, but it was only enough to force extra basketball, not earn a victory.

Those final five minutes belonged solely to the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa opened the scoring in overtime with a 7-0 run. At that point, the result seemed all but decided. The loss was the Owls’ third straight defeat overall and snapped a three-game winning streak on the road in conference play.

Final Box | Tulsa 93 – Rice 82 (OT)

Key takeaway | Can’t teach clutch

Aside from the final score, there was a lot to like from the box score for Rice basketball on Saturday. They shot the ball reasonably well, got big games from Travis Evee and Max Fiedler and led Tulsa in rebounds and points in the paint. But games aren’t decided by box scores or by aggregate measures. They’re decided in key moments, in overtime sequences, with everything on the line.

The painful reality for this team right now is this: when the lights have shined the brightest, they haven’t risen to the challenge. That was the case on Saturday against Tulsa. In a winnable game that went to overtime, Rice wilted in extra minutes. Tulsa outscored Rice 14-3 in overtime.

Flip the results of a handful of clutch moments and this Rice team looks respectable against some potent AAC opponents. But that’s not how this works. The clutch gene has avoided the Owls and their record is a reflection of that. There are no points rewarded for almost.

Up Next: at UAB (Wednesday, Feb. 21)

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Rice Women’s Basketball falls to UAB on the road

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Rice Women’s Basketball saw a three-game winning streak snapped on Saturday, falling to UAB on the road.

Tied in the win column with North Texas entering the weekend, Rice women’s basketball was riding a hot streak to the top of the AAC standings. That momentum looked to continue at tip off against UAB with Malia Fisher back in the starting lineup and the scorer of the game’s first points.

Both sides traded baskets in the early going as the lead seesawed back and forth. Seven was the largest margin for either side held only briefly by the Blazers to start the second quarter. Not long after, Rice used a 12-3 run to erase the deficit completely, going in front in the final minute of the half. Fisher led the way with 10 points. She would go on to finish with a team-high 20.

Fisher got the scoring started again in the third quarter and later provided a big basket, punctuating a 10-0 Rice run to put the visiting Owls back in front once more. The eight points of the quarter would belong to UAB, though, providing an ominous foreshadowing for what would prove to be a disappointing fourth quarter for Rice. It would be the final of 17 lead changes in the contest.

UAB couldn’t miss in the final frame, shooting 73 percent from the field to the Owls’ 37 percent. That helped the home team outscore Rice by seven in those final 10 minutes. UAB ended the game on a 6-0 run, slamming the door on any hopes of a late comeback.

Final Box | UAB 87 – Rice 74

Key takeaway | Bench blocked

Following a streak of several huge performances from the Rice bench, the Owls’ reserves were limited to 26 points today. For most teams, that’s a solid showing, but the Rice bench hit 50 points last time out against ECU and was largely kept in check beyond a strong shooting performance from Jazzy Owens-Barnett.

The bench isn’t really a question mark for this squad at this point. We know they’re deep, capable and talented. The question now becomes can the stars of this team rise up and take over a game when they need to?

Malia Fisher (9-of-21), Destiny Jackson (5-of-9) and Dominque Ennis (2-for-11) each had really good moments today. But when push came to shove in the fourth quarter, the efficiency was not there in clutch moments. Nobody should overreact to one game, but it’s a fair reminder that as much as Rice needs its depth, it’s going to need its stars, too.

Up Next: at Memphis (Tuesday, Feb. 20)

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