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Rice Basketball falters late at Memphis

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Rice Basketball battled Memphis to the very end but couldn’t make the key plays down the stretch to shift the result, falling to the Tigers on the road.

The first five shots Rice basketball took Wednesday night against a ranked Memphis squad on the road were off the mark. An early deficit would prove to be the fruit of a slow start with the Owls finding themselves down 10 points before they made their first field goal to cut the Tigers’ lead to 13-5 with nearly six minutes of action in the books.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Offense

Given time to get their footing and fire back, Rice would mount a counteroffensive midway through the half, ripping off a 12-2 run to get back within two points and force a Memphis timeout. The Tigers would grind out some breathing room before the end of the half, but Rice had managed to turn the would-be rout into a competitive game at the break.

Rice would tie the game up at 46 in the early minutes of the second half and although they would keep the game close from that point onward, any leads proved elusive. The Owls’ final rally tied the game at 70, but free throw woes, turnovers and missed opportunities saw that close game evaporate in a matter of seconds. Memphis closed the game on a 14-2 run to seal the win.

Final Box | Memphis 84, Rice 72

Key takeaway | Make them earn it

Several weeks ago Memphis made 10 three-pointers in a fire fight at Tudor Fieldhouse that ended with Memphis outscoring Rice in a thriller. Memphis has made at least five threes in every game so far this season and averages 8.1 threes per contest. On Wednesday night, Memphis made two.

For the most part, the explosiveness of the Memphis offense was neutralized by a defensive game plan that made the Tigers work for every basket, forcing them to work inside and take contested shots. For 38 minutes, that plan seemed to work. Memphis couldn’t lengthen their lead quickly, allowing the Rice offense to keep pace.

The plan gave the Owls a chance, a one possession game with two minutes left in regulation against a ranked foe on the road is a step forward from where this program has been. But as so many of these close losses leaded up to this, it’s clear there’s more work to be done.

Up Next: at UTSA (Sun, Mar. 2)

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Rice Women’s Basketball blazes past UAB

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Rice Women’s Basketball caught fire in the second quarter and ran away with a dominant home victory over the UAB Blazers.

Had it not been for a handful of pesky three-pointers from UAB, Rice women’s basketball might have run away with things in the opening quarter on Tuesday night. The Owls were held to a modest two-point advantage after one, a lead that grew quickly when the long range shot died up for the Blazers in the ensuing quarter.

Rice outscored UAB by an astounding margin of 22-5 in the next 10 minutes, taking a 19-point edge into halftime, firmly in control of the contest. Led by a game-high nine points from Victoria Flores, the Owls would only need to hold the line after the break if they wanted to secure a much-needed conference win.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Defense

UAB refused to make it easy. The Blazers opened the second half on an 11-2 run, cutting the Owls’ lead to 10 points but the sprint would stop there. Rice responded with a 13-2 run of their own, capped by a pair of threes from Flores to catapult the Owls to a 20-point lead, their largest of the game to that point.

“Everybody was locked in,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said, praising her team’s defensive effort to hold UAB to just four threes as well as a commanding 62-27 margin on the boards.

The big lead would prove enough wiggle room to afford Rice women’s basketball a chance to exhale and play loose in the final quarter. They’d go ahead by as many as 30 before closing out a comfortable home win, their second home conference victory by 20+ points in the past three games.

Final Box | Rice 73, UAB 48

Key takeaway | Vic-torious

Few athletes on South Main had bigger shoes to fill than Victoria Flores this season. Taking over the point guard start from Destiny Jackson was a huge responsibility for a younger player who didn’t have the same on-court success as a fixture within the program like Jackson.

Even still, the growth Flores demonstrated as the season progressed was unmistakable and the link between her progress and the Owls’ success was crystal clear. Flores scored 23 points against UAB, her 11th game this season reaching double-digits. Rice women’s basketball is 10-1 when she scores at least 10.

To put that in perspective, Rice is 7-11 when Dominique Ennis scores at least 10 and 5-7 when Malia Fisher reaches double-digits. Both of those players are crucial pieces to framework of this team, but Flores’ opens up the offense and changes the complexion of this squad when she’s at her best.

Rice will need all of its stars if it wants to replicate its late-season tournament run of a year ago. Flores has done enough to warrant inclusion in that company.

Up Next: at Temple (Fri, 2/28)

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Rice Women’s Basketball comes up short against UTSA

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Rice Women’s Basketball got within a last-second shot of league-leading UTSA but couldn’t get it to fall, dropping a heartbreaker to the Roadrunners.

A pair of three-pointers in the closing minutes of the first quarter staved off what looked to be a rout inside the confines of Tudor Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon. Rice women’s basketball was hosting Senior Day and seemed to have been caught up in the festivities, sacrificing the opening minutes of a crucial game against top-seeded UTSA.

The Owls would eventually come to, though, playing the Roadrunners more or less even through the next two quarters. Rice runs would occasionally get the game back within seven or eight points, but UTSA would hold serve, keeping Rice at bay until things got interesting in the fourth quarter.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Defense

Rice opened that last segment with a scoring burst, but it was the Owls’ defense that made the biggest difference. The Roadrunners made three field goals in the quarter and just one in the final seven minutes, allowing the Owls to claw back into the contest and turn it into a competitive game once more.

Dominique Ennis hit a jumper to make it a three point game with 2:55 to play. Then Sussy Ngulefac cut the deficit to one and the defense forced a jump ball to get the Owls the ball back in time for a final shot. Ennis got the look, but it wouldn’t fall. After a foul and free throws, Rice got one last-second heave, but that shot went wide, too.

Final Box | UTSA 57, Rice 55

Key takeaway | 40 minutes

Saturday’s fourth quarter against UTSA made it clear Rice women’s basketball could challenge the best of the AAC. The Owls outscored the Roadrunners by six in the fourth quarter as well as by one point in the third and were even with them in the second. UTSA won the first quarter by nine. And therein lies the problem Rice women’s basketball has yet to solve this season, the 40 minute game.

Every game is 40 minutes and it’s hard to play at 100 percent for a full 40 minutes. But the best teams tend to get a lot closer to that level of consistency than those in the middle of the standings.

A two-point difference at the final buzzer made that abundantly clear. UTSA isn’t so much more talented than Rice to the point where the back-and-forth action of the game has been rendered moot. On the contrary, Rice has the talent and the ability to play with these teams. They just aren’t consistent enough to be anywhere near the top of the standings, something that has generated an understandable level of frustration.

Up Next: vs UAB (Tues, 2/25)

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Rice Basketball roll past Tulsa

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Rice Basketball returned to the win column emphatically, maintaining a double-digit lead for most of the game against Tulsa on Saturday.

From the moment Denver Anglin drained the first three of the game to the successive baskets from Trae Broadnax to give Rice basketball a 7-0 lead, Saturday’s game against Tulsa felt different. There was no back-and-forth in this one like so many of the Owls’ other nailbiters of late, no, Rice outscored Tulsa 21-6 in the first 11 minutes and change, setting the tone for what would become a Rice romp.

Tulsa would eventually get things going offensively, but a pair of double-digit scorers from the Golden Hurricane was not nearly enough to overcome such a sizable early deficit.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Offense

In fact, Tulsa would get back within single digits on the scoreboard just twice. The first time came in the latter portions of the first half to which Rice answered with a 7-0 run. The next was near the midpoint of the second half. Rice ripped off five in a row and that was that.

To eliminate any doubts this game was as one-sided as it felt, Rice would close things out on a 14-5 rally, scoring the final six points of the game and earning a much-needed AAC victory in the process.

Final Box | Rice 71, Tulsa 50

Key takeaway | Past due

Finally getting in the win column after too many painful, last-minute losses to count is a breath of fresh air to a Rice basketball squad that has been struggling to close out games. Head coach Rob Lanier mentioned as much in his comments after the game.

“A great sign of the resilience of the guys, and that’s been a consistent theme,” Lanier remarked. “The expectation is that we’re going to come out and play well and be competitive and we’re going to have to find a way to finish some of the games that we’ve been in. I think the group is getting tougher mentally and the bond is getting stronger through these experiences.”

Lanier could have stopped there, but chose not to. In a response to a later question, Lanier made it clear he viewed even this win as a learning experience for his team.

“My message at halftime and a little bit after the game is that we have a good group of kids. They stick together. There’s some comradery. There’s some positive energy flowing through our locker room,” he said. “But the next step is for us to add to that some bite. And I didn’t feel that tonight, that bite, that aggressiveness.”

Perhaps that killer instinct has kept this squad from a few more wins over the past month. Regardless of the reason, Lanier doesn’t seem content with the status quo and is pushing his team for more. That might be the most encouraging thing that happened for Rice basketball on Saturday, beyond just a win.

Up Next: at Memphis (Wed, Feb. 26)

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Rice Basketball suffers last-second loss to UAB

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Rice Basketball traded blows with UAB for 40 minutes but came up one point short in the final seconds resulting in yet another painful defeat.

There was barely time to exhale at media timeouts given the breakneck speed with which Rice basketball traded blows with UAB at Tudor Fieldhouse on Wednesday evening. The visiting Blazers couldn’t miss in the opening segments of the first half, shooting 69 percent from the floor through the first eight minutes of action. The Owls weren’t far behind, starting 4-of-7 from three to keep pace with the Blazers’ blitz.

The largest lead in the first half was seven points, held by UAB with nine minutes to play. The advantage disappeared almost as quickly as the visitors had amassed it. A quick 7-0 run brought the game back to level before UAB would eventually make it to the halftime buzzer in front by just three points.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Offense

Jacob Dar would tie the game on his first shot out of the break, contributing to his second consecutive game north of 20 points and his game-leading 24 point outing that put the Owls in the driver’s seat to snap their losing skid.

With 5.7 seconds to play and Rice leading by three, Dar was on the wrong end of a foul that sent UAB to the line to shoot three. The Blazers missed the first, but another whistle on under the basket awarded additional free throws to the Blazers, who snuck ahead by one. Rice would get back to the line with less than two seconds to play, but two missed free throws sent Rice to another crushing defeat.

Final Box | UAB 90, Rice 89

Key takeaway | Unbreakable

After the three at the buzzer at Tulane, it felt as if this Rice basketball team had lost in every single heartbreaking way possible. Add one more to the list. A questionable foul call under the basket and two missed free throws to tie the game in the final seconds is about as aggravating of a gut punch as one could imagine.

But they haven’t given up. Not yet. Wednesday’s down-to-the-wire battle against the Blazers proved as much. Dar, who had every reason to despair along with his teammates, offered this rebuttal post game.

“This loss is tough for sure, but it’s not going to break us at all. We’ve been through this. Last game we went through this and we bounced back,” he said. “Nobody on our team is going to ever give up. We’re always going to give 100 percent. Every game we’re going to come out and compete. Every game we’re going to come out to win. That’s our mindset and it’s never going to drop.”

This squad is out of time to scream up the standings, but they’ve proven there isn’t anyone in this league they can’t go toe-to-toe with on the court. They’ll be the team nobody wants to play in the conference tournament in March. Before they get there, though, it would be nice to win a few basketball games.

Up Next: vs Tulsa (Sat, Feb. 22)

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