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Rice Basketball downed by New Mexico, falls to 1-4

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Rice basketball fell to 0-2 at the Ball Dawgs Classic, falling too far behind in the first half to New Mexico on another tough night from three.

It wasn’t quite a repeat performance of the night before, but it was another discouraging result for Rice Basketball which fell to 1-4 on the season following a Wednesday night loss to New Mexico at the Ball Dawgs Classic in Las Vegas, NV. A changeup in the starting lineup, swapping in Noah Shelby in place of Anthony Selden didn’t seem to produce any material results.

Rice scored the first points, courtesy of a layup from Max Fiedler, but then watched their opponent go on a 16-3 run. New Mexico had their first double-digit lead before the second media timeout. Travie Evee kept the Owls afloat, leading all scorers with 11 first-half points.

After connecting on just 3-of-12 triples in the first half, Rice found some life early on in the second frame when their long balls began to fall. Rice made their first three three-pointers after intermission, cutting a deficit that had ballooned to 15 down to eight. The defense stepped up at that point too, contributing to nine consecutive missed shots for New Mexico.

As has been the case over the past four games, though, the bright spots were limited to brief moments and not stretched over the course of a 40-minute game. A 13-3 run midway through the second half put this game out of reach for good. Rice would go on to lose by a final score of 90-56.

Final Box | New Mexico 90 – Rice 56

Key takeaway | Can’t buy a bucket

Rice basketball likes to play fast and shoot the ball. When the shots go in, that’s all well and good. When they don’t, things can get out of hand quickly. And while the Owls possess the firepower to hurtle back and overcome deficits other teams might not, it’s certainly not a tactic they’d like to rely upon.

A season ago, Rice shot 44.9 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from three. Those are averages, mind you, not highs and lows. Excluding their opener against Saint Thomas, Rice has yet to eclipse that shooting percentage from the field, managing just 34.0 percent from the floor against New Mexico. A dismal 25 percent shooting performance from three only made the troubles worse.

They’ve got one more game in Vegas to fight through. Then it’s back home against a couple of more manageable opponents and a much-needed, albeit brief reprieve from this rigorous non-conference schedule.

Up Next: Ball Dawg’s Classic – Henderson, NV (UC Irvine – Nov. 24)

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Rice Basketball blown away by Indiana State

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Rice basketball opened the Ball Dawgs Classic with a loss to Indiana State, losing the turnover battle and allowing too many long range shots.

Nothing seemed amiss in the early goings of the opening game for Rice basketball at the Ball Dawgs Classic in Las Vegas, NV. Rice and Indiana State traded early shots and were neck and neck through the first half of the opening frame. With the Owls leading 19-18 and the clock ticking under 12, it felt like a competitive game was about to unfold. That would not be the case.

Rice would go on to make just two shots in the next seven minutes of court time. During that period, Indiana State rained down six threes. The Owls simply could not keep up and their woes were further magnified by a season-high 18 turnovers.

That run took a close game and teetered it toward blowout territory. By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, Rice trailed by 21. Travis Evee did his part, contributing a season-high 25 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the early hole. Rice cut the deficit to 13 in the final minute, but they never had a real chance to win this basketball game once they fell behind in the manner with which they did.

“We knew they were a really good team coming in. They are a good team,” head coach Scott Pera said. “They made 16 threes and you’re never going to lose when you do that.”

Final Box | Indiana State 103 – Rice 88

Key takeaway | Don’t Hand Away Your Margin

Rice basketball had committed 18 turnovers in their last two games combined and 23 total on the season. To turn the ball over 18 times was devastating for the Owls’ offensive flow and marked one of the sloppiest performances taking care of the basketball for this team in quite some time. They only had three games with more turnovers in all of last season.

Pera pointed directly toward that glaring deficiency when explaining the loss. “I think it was our inability to take care of the ball,” he said. “We gave them turnovers. We gave them some open looks. There was a lot of miscommunication on defense that gave them wide-open looks. And they didn’t miss them.”

Rice made 10 threes against Indiana State and shot the ball decently well. They scored 88 points. This was a game that might have been competitive if the Owls had done enough to keep the game within reach. This team can score, but that skill won’t pay dividends if the defense and ball handling aren’t strong enough to keep games within reach.

There’s only so much margin for error that can be accounted for in a basketball game. Rice handed away all that margin and then some. The best teams struggle to win when turning the ball over at the rate the Owls’ did on Tuesday. Rice has some work to do before they’re in that company.

Up Next: Ball Dawg’s Classic – Henderson, NV (New Mexico – Nov. 22)

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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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