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Bokunewicz’s big day powers Rice Women’s Basketball past St. Mary’s

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Rice women’s basketball overcame a slow start, catching fire in the second half behind the masterful shooting performance of Maya Bokunewicz.

It wasn’t the start Rice women’s basketball would have hoped to see on Sunday afternoon. After trading baskets early, Rice fell behind by nine points by the end of the first quarter, committing uncharacteristic penalties and making mental mistakes. Their opponent, Saint Mary’s pushed their advantage to double-digits early in the second quarter, putting the game on the brink of disaster should the Owls not settle down.

Head coach Lindsay Edmonds pulled the team aside and challenged them to focus.

“I just challenged. I challenge them to be who we are. We had not been that yet. And I was just telling them if wanted to play today, they would show up and play because at that point I  didn’t feel like they had shown up,” Edmonds said. “If we were playing blah it is not good for us. So I just challenged them to be us. And if they were ready to play, I was ready to watch them. They stepped up and they were ready to get going after that.

Not only did Rice find its rhythm, but they played some of their best basketball yet from that point onward. An 11-0 Rice run erased the Gaels’ lead entirely, with the Owls taking a brief two-point lead before heading into halftime even at 35-all.

The defense was starting to gel and the Owls were taking better care of the basketball. Maya Bokunewicz did the rest. The veteran guard connected on seven three-pointers, tying the school record and pushing the Rice lead to as many as 16 points.

When St. Mary’s tried to mount a late comeback, Rice made its free throws and Dominque Ennis delivered the dagger three in the closing seconds to put the game away. Rice moves to 3-2 with the win.

Final Box | Rice 73 – St. Mary’s 62

What They’re Saying

“We have kids that are now sophomores that were freshmen and played a lot of minutes, but there’s still ultimately very young on the basketball court. But there’s a lot of times they do not show their youth and inexperience at times today, I felt like we we showed that a little bit, but we’re still figuring it out. We don’t want to peak right now. We want to be peaking in February and March. I told them after the last game, we don’t need to hang our heads and hopefully, these adversities we’re facing now are going to bring us blessings in February and March.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Masterful Maya

This team is still learning who to lean on in big moments. A season ago, Ashlee Austin and Destiny Jackson were the spark plugs that willed this program to win. Jackson remains, but her role as a distributor is just as important as that of a scorer. She’s going to need someone else to make those clutch shots. On Sunday, that clutch someone was Maya Bokunewicz.

“Maya Buckets, that’s the opening statement,” Edmonds joked.

Bokunewicz tied a career-high with 26 points, reached in large part by the aforementioned seven triples. Even with her big day from behind the arc, Rice still only shot 38 percent from the floor. All of those makes mattered. The fact that they counted for three instead of two was a bonus.

“I kind of lost count,” Bokunewicz admitted. “I would just shoot one and it would go in… it kept happening. Like coach Edmonds said, my teammates really just found me, I was wide open and I just happened to be really on today.”

Up Next: at Stephen F. Austin (Sat. Nov 25)

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Rice Women’s Basketball loses big lead, falls to Georgia Tech

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Rice women’s basketball built a 17-point lead but could not hang on, allowing miscues to sink them late against Georiga Tech.

At least early on, the friendly confines of Tudor Fieldhouse seemed to be a welcoming backdrop for a resurgent Rice women’s basketball team that got things going quickly against Georgia Tech. Destiny Jackson delivered eight first-quarter points, propelling the Owls to an early lead, which grew to a double-digit advantage midway through the second quarter.

It looked as if the Owls would be able to put things in cruise control when their advantage reached 17 points in the early minutes of the third quarter. Instead, things started to sputter for the home team.

Georgia Tech traded blows with Rice for a while in the third quarter, but didn’t really began their comeback bid in earnest until the final minute of the frame. The Yellow Jackets finished on a 7-0 run, converting their foul shots and a key three pointer to pull within six. That deficit shrunk to one at the midpoint of the fourth quarter, putting the pressure back on Rice to find a way to finish.

Foul trouble and turnovers would prove to be the Owls’ undoing. Malia Fisher spent most of the final quarter on the bench before fouling out in the final minute. Limited minutes from Fisher late and six turnovers in the final quarter proved too much to overcome. Dominque Ennis had time to toss a pair of threes up to tie the game, but neither found home, handing Rice their second consecutive defeat.

“I’m not into moral victories,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said after the game. “I felt like that was one we let slip away.”

Final Box | Georgia Tech 78 – Rice 75

What They’re Saying

“I told the team, I reminded them, we did not schedule a cupcake non-conference and we did it on purpose. We wanted to challenge ourselves. We wanted to be battle-tested. We wanted to be put in these situations. And hopefully, these adversities that we’re dealing with now are going to bring blessings to us in March and we’ll be able to figure out how to win the games that we need, to have the toughness that we need to… Hopefully it’s going to help us in February and March, when it matters the most.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Take care of the basketball

Two stats sum up why this game ended the way it did: rebounds and turnovers. When games get close, teams that execute are the ones that tend to win. Yes, high-caliber shooting can bail anyone out on any given night, but over the long haul, it typically requires excelling in the fundamentals and doing the little things well.

Rice was outrebounded 41-34 for the game and 10-5 in the fourth quarter. Likewise, Rice committed one less turnover in the game than Georgia Tech did but gave the ball back to their opponent six times in the fourth compared to twice by the Yellow Jackets.

Up Next: vs St. Mary’s (Sun. Nov 19)

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Rice Basketball shooting goes cold in loss to Texas

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Rice basketball hung around early, but couldn’t keep pace with Texas, falling in Austin by the final score 80-64. The Owls are 1-2 overall.

A year removed from taking Texas to overtime but coming up short, Rice basketball gave their orange-clad opponents another rigorous challenge in Austin once more. Despite struggling to find their shooting stroke early on, Rice hung around.

It was the Rice defense that enabled them to prolong the fight, forcing eight Texas turnovers in the first half with three steals and two blocks. Anthony Selden was in the middle of many of those key defensive plays. Along the way, the Owls fell behind by as many as 12 points in the first half, but climbed back to within four before another cold spell left them behind by nine at the break.

Texas’ movement was the difference. The Longhorns did a better job consistently creating room for their shooters. That difference in shot quality when combined with a tough night from three for Rice put the visiting Owls in catch-up more all night long until time ran out.

Rice was able to briefly cut the deficit to nine points at the start of the second half, but the Longhorns were able to keep the Owls at arm’s length for more or less the remainder of the contest. Any dreams of a thrilling upset this time around would not come to pass.

Final Box | Texas 80 – Rice 64

Key takeaway | The shots will fall

Scott Pera has designed this team to score points. Facilitating open looks and setting up his players to be in the best possible situations for them to succeed is his bread and butter. But — as he’d be the first to tell anyone who asked — it’s the players who make the plays.

For whatever reason, those players haven’t been making the shots. Honestly, it’s basketball. Shooting slumps happen. Teams have off nights where the shot doesn’t fall. That happens more frequently against better defenses, including the one the Owls faced on Wednesday night, but it still happens.

The Texas defense was gritty. Rice didn’t get many clean looks and when they did, they did not convert at a high enough rate. On the other side, when Texas was given open looks, they made Rice pay. It will be the Owls’ night soon enough. 18 percent from three is the exception, not the rule.

Up Next: Ball Dawg’s Classic – Henderson, NV

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TCU snaps Rice Women’s Basketball’s nonconference win streak

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Rice women’s basketball saw a 13-game non-conference game winning streak come to an end on Sunday in Fort Worth, falling to TCU 67-42.

Baskets were at a premium on Sunday afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas. Rice women’s basketball made its first shot to take a 2-0 lead, but didn’t string together consecutive made baskets until the opening possession of the third quarter. TCU wasn’t shooting much better. The Horned Frogs edged the Owls 36.2 percent to 25.4 percent from the field, but a high-scoring game was never in the cards.

Despite the shooting woes, Rice hung tight with TCU through the first quarter of action. Things were neck-and-neck for a while until TCU went on a 17-2 run, pushing a level game to the brink of a blowout in the matter of roughly five minutes of time on the court.

Rice was able to chip away at the deficit in the opening minutes of the third quarter. Malia Fisher got the run started with back-to-back layup, others contributed a few timely shots behind her, but things went cold once again from the field shortly thereafter. Rice did not make a field goal in the final 6:20 of the third quarter. That allowed TCU to stretch the lead from 10 to 18 entering the final frame.

Without any sort of consistent offensive production, Rice had to watch TCU pull away and seal the game. The loss snaps a streak of 13 consecutive non-conference victories for the Owls.

Final Box | TCU 67 – Rice 42

Key takeaway | Who is going to step up on offense?

Rice missed four or more consecutive shots on four separate occasions in the first half against TCU. The Horned Frogs only had one such cold stretch during that period. Come the third and fourth quarters, Rice suffered through an 0-for-10 stretch from the field.

On some days, the shots are going to fall. That’s basketball. It happens. Finding ways to manufacture easy looks and get to the free throw line becomes the necessary alternative on those afternoons. Even that sort of Plan B never materialized from the Owls on Sunday.

The slow day on the offense exposed one lingering question for this team, which boasts as talented and as deep of a roster as they’ve had under head coach Lindsay Edmonds thus far: do they have a dominant scorer?

Edmonds’ teams have tended toward balanced production. No single player has carried the load on offense, it’s been a collective effort. In general, the approach makes a lot of sense and it’s worked for this program. But on days like today, Rice women’s basketball needs someone to take command and will the offense to score.

Nobody rose to the occasion against TCU. Will someone take up that mantle on the next tough day from the field? Rice is going to have more hard shooting days. They need to figure out a solution.

Up Next: vs Georgia Tech (Thr. Nov 16)

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Early deficit dooms Rice Basketball in home loss to Harvard

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Rice basketball rallied from an 18-point deficit on Friday night against Harvard, but could not finish the job, falling to the Crimson at home.

Days removed from a comprehensive drubbing of St. Thomas, Rice basketball was handed a much tougher challenge in their second game of the season. Harvard came out in a furry, delivering Rice their loudest wakeup call yet in their young season. From the opening score — a three ball from Chandler Pigge – throughout a barrage of Harvard baskets, Rice seemingly had no answer.

Harvard couldn’t miss early in this contest. The Crimson shot 51.6 percent in the first half, starting the game 6-for-9 from three. That onslaught would have been tough to keep pace with if the Owls were shooting well, but it wasn’t that kind of night for the home team. Rice opened the game 1-for-11 from three and struggled mightily from the floor.

“We got punched in the mouth out of the gate. I don’t know if it’s guys’ effort so much as if they’re not having success how they handle it internally,” Pera said. “I didn’t think our effort was bad. I thought our execution was bad, especially when we go the lead.”

The segue to that lead came with Rice trailing by a game-high 18 points in the first half. Pera called a timeout. The players settled down and responded with an 11-0 run. Reaching halftime trailing by only 10 points felt like a victory in itself.

At the halfway mark in the second half the game didn’t seem any closer. Rice trailed by 12 at the under-12-minute media timeout. Then, out of the timeout, Rice got to work. The 12-point deficit was vaporized. Over the course of the next three minutes, Rice thundered back to take the lead. It would not last.

Harvard found the plays in clutch moments whereas Rice was held without a field goal for more than four minutes before an inconsequential layup from Max Fiedler fell, accompanied by the muted applause of a full Tudor Fieldhouse. Rice falls to 1-1 with the loss.

“In every category that matters, they outplayed us,” Pera said.

Final Box | Harvard 89 – Rice 76

What They’re Saying

“If you can do it in practice, you gotta be able to do it in a game. It’s gotta transfer. I gotta figure out why that didn’t happen so that the next time we play, whether it’s Texas or Saint Thomas, we do what we’re supposed to do and what we work on. That is the frustration for me.” – Head coach Scott Pera.

Key takeaway | Defensive frustrations

Fair or not, the defense will be the first culprit assigned blame when Rice loses. To this point of Pera’s tenure, it’s been his largest vexation and the most frequent offseason talking point. And to his credit, Pera never promised — nor should onlookers have expected — a top-tier defensive unit. The aim was always to be competent enough and the offense would do the rest.

The bar was rather low. Rice lost their opening contest last season at Pepperdine 106-67. Keeping Harvard to a slightly more stomachable 89 points is technically an improvement, but the progress rings hollow when the result isn’t a win.

“In practice, we do the right things. It’s just effort, paying attention in games and locking in instead of having these little mental lapses,” guard Anthony Selden said. “Mental lapses at this level, teams are going to take advantage of it. I think we can’t afford to have little mental lapses every possession.”

The defense was better in stretches after half time. Rice doesn’t get back into this game without five key second half turnovers and two blocks to help spur their comeback bid. Ultimately, though, it was an inability to maintain that level of defensive intensity for more than a few possessions that sank the Owls on Friday night.

Three times in his postgame comments Pera used the word disappointing, frustrations evident from the loss. For coaches and players, the disconnect from practice to the game was agonizing. And they don’t have very long to figure it out. Rice plays Texas in four days’ time.

Pera’s message was crystal clear. “Forget about beating Texas or beating Harvard. Just play like we’re capable of playing. You have an opportunity then, because we have good enough players, that you’ll give yourselves a chance to win the games,” he said. But if you play like this for 30 minutes tonight, you’re not winning.”

Up Next: at Texas (Wed. Nov 15)

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