The source for Rice sports news

Rice Basketball 2023 Roster Tracker

By

The Rice basketball roster will grow and change between the end of the regular season and the start of the next. Stay tuned here for updates.

Roster churn has become a part of college sports as we know and Rice basketball is not immune to the ebb and flow of players coming in and out. With the 2022-2023 season in the books, this page will serve as a running tracker regarding the roster for the upcoming season as it currently stands. The last official roster is available here.

More: 2023 Rice Basketball State of the Program

Feel free to bookmark it and refer back to it from time to time as players announce their intentions throughout the offseason.

Departing with Eligibility (4)

  • G Quincy Olivari
  • F Seryee Lewis
  • G Jaden Geron
  • G Mason Jones

Departing Seniors/Graduates (3)

  • G Reed Myers
  • G Jake Lieppert
  • F Ben Moffat

Incoming High School Signees (3)

Incoming Transfers (3)

Current Expected Remaining Roster (10)

  • F Andrew Akuchie
  • G Travis Evee
  • F Max Fiedler
  • G Alem Huseinovic
  • G Mekhi Mason
  • F Damion McDowell
  • F Jackson Peakes
  • F George Perkins
  • F Cam Sheffield
  • C Ifeanyi Ufochukwu

Rice Basketball News

Rice Basketball, Rice Women's Basketball, Game Recap

Rice Basketball Ambushed by FGCU in OT

Posted: November 25, 2025

Rice Basketball never trailed in regulation, but found themselves in a double-digit deficit, losing to FGCU in overtime at the Coconut Hoops Tournament. Points were at a premium in the early goings of the second Rice basketball contest at Coconut Hoops. Jimmy Oladokun opened the scoring against Florida Gulf Coast with a layup more than […]

Rice Basketball, Rice Women's Basketball, Game Recap

Rice Basketball Falls in OT to Kennesaw State

Posted: November 24, 2025

Rice Basketball and Kennesaw State needed more than 40 minutes to resolve their opening matchup at the Coconut Hoops Tournament, with Kennesaw State winning in OT. Rice Basketball played a nerve-racking opening game to the Coconut Hoops Tournament that was tight throughout. Kennesaw State opened the scoring before Rice quickly answered to produce one of […]

Rice Basketball, Rice Women's Basketball, Game Recap

Rice Women’s Basketball Rallies Past UIW

Posted: November 23, 2025

A disastrous second quarter left Rice Women’s basketball in a hole, but the Owls rallied late to stave off an upset by UIW at home. Rice women’s basketball fell behind from the opening tip, but kept things close through the first quarter, getting to the line and creating opportunities close to the basket. Still, they […]

Rice Basketball, game recap

Rice Basketball Falters Late Against Tarleton State

Posted: November 20, 2025

Rice Basketball led at the break but couldn’t hold off Tarleton State in the second half as the visitors ran away with the game in the second half. Tarleton State opened the game with the first points, but Rice basketball quickly fired back with a three-pointer from Jalen Smith to jumpstart a back-and-forth contest in […]

Rice Basketball, Rice Women's Basketball, Game Recap

Rice Women’s Basketball Falters Late in Princeton Loss

Posted: November 19, 2025

Rice Women’s basketball led early but couldn’t close, watching an early fourth quarter lead evaporate in a road loss to Princeton. Things got off to a strong start for Rice women’s basketball in a pivotal road matchup against a Princeton team that was receiving votes in the most recent AP Poll. The visiting Owls opened […]

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball hangs on to beat UAB

By

Rice women’s basketball built a huge lead against UAB and held on, weathering a late rally from the Blazers to secure the win at home.

Playing without Malia Fisher once again, Rice women’s basketball was a bit slow out of the gates on Thursday night against UAB, falling behind 12-4 before things started clicking on both sides of the court. India Bellamy and Katelyn Crosthwait would revive the offense, scoring 13 of the Owls’ 15 points and 23 of their first 34.

It was the Owls’ defense that made the defense in the second quarter, holding the Blazers to just seven points in the frame. UAB shot 11 percent in the quarter, turned the ball over four times and was outscored by 12, further cemented by a defensive stand at the buzzer to enable Rice to maintain a nine-point lead, their largest of the game to that point.  It would grow from there, but the game wouldn’t end as comfortably as the Owls might have hoped.

Rice led by 17 at the conclusion of the third quarter. By the time the clock had ticked down below two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, the Rice lead was just three points. UAB outscored Rice 22-10 in the last quarter, but couldn’t get any of their potential game-tying threes to fall before Destiny Jackson hit a jumper to push the Rice lead back to two possessions in the final seconds and Ashlee Austin secured one more rebound to secure the win.

The victory keeps Rice (10-7) in the running for a first round bye in the conference tournament with a multi-game lead over North Texas (8-10) and three regular season games remaining.

Final Box | Rice 63 – UAB 58

Key takeaway | Depth matters

Last season, Rice women’s basketball manufactured an incredible late-season run on the backs of six or seven healthy players. Two of the pillars of that successful run were Malia Fisher and Ashlee Austin. That tandem hasn’t seen meaningful time on the court at the same time since February 4. The Owls are 4-1 since then, missing Austin for two games by coach’s decision and Fisher for three because of injury.

India Bellamy has stepped up in a big way, including a career day last Saturday against Western Kentucky, but it has truly been a collective effort from a host of Owls to maintain their momentum despite not playing at full strength.

“The ones that are stepping on the court and playing minutes, they’re playing a lot of minutes, but they’re getting the job done,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. The depth is the reason we’ve been able to win some games this year that we wouldn’t have won last year. I like our depth. I like the versatility that we have. I think a lot of people can step up and do great things for us.”

Up Next: vs Charlotte – Saturday, Feb. 25 at 2:00 p.m.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Basketball blasted by UAB Blazers in Birmingham

By

Rice basketball was blasted by the UAB Blazers for the second time this season, falling in Birmingham in a game that was all but over at halftime.

Everything seemed in normal order on Thursday evening when Ty Brewer opened the scoring for UAB with a jumper to put Rice Basketball behind 2-0 in the opening minute. Rice would answer, twice, going ahead 4-2. The Blazers would go on a run from there, but even when KJ Buffen hit a three leading into the first media timeout to put UAB up 15-4, things didn’t feel out of control. That would change quickly, though.

UAB would grow their lead to 21 points before Rice would score again. The Owls’ swipes soon seemed to be little more than paper cuts against the Blazers’ impervious defense and aggressive counterattack. Following a Quincy Olivari three to bring Rice back within 18 points, UAB would deliver another back-breaking rally, outscoring Rice 21-2 over the next stretch, taking a 50-13 lead late in the first half, ending with a 55-24 halftime advantage.

Unsurprisingly, Rice basketball was unable to climb out of the 27-point halftime hole, falling on the road in decisive fashion. Next, they’ll travel to Charlotte in a game the Owls must win if they hope to hold off the 49ers in the race for the final first-round bye.

Final Box | UAB 84 – Rice 57

Key takeaway | The duality of the Owl

For better or worse, Rice basketball seems to have settled into an exhausting back-and-forth between one of two styles of game. On some days, Rice is locked in, they rally to a decent lead, then try their best to hold on in the final minutes. In the others, they’re blasted out of the gates, fall behind by a considerable amount and are realistically out of the game before the second half gets underway.

The latter is where Rice found itself on Thursday night. After posting a quiet 4-2 lead, UAB ripped off a 25-1 run and that was that. It was an off night and Rice had no answer, at least not until the game was well past out of reach. This isn’t a new development with this team and they’re running out of time to find a solution. The conference tournament will be here soon and there will be no more grace given for off days. It’ll be win or go home.

Up Next: at Charlotte – Saturday, Feb. 25 at 3:00 p.m.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Basketball earns season sweep of WKU with home win

By

For the first time under head coach Scott Pera, Rice basketball has swept Western Kentucky. The Owls knocked off the Hilltoppers again Saturday, moving to 2-0 this season.

Following an extended stretch of slow starts, Rice basketball came out red-hot against the red-clad Western Kentucky Hilltoppers on Saturday night at Tudor Fieldhouse. Quincy Olivari conducted the early onslaught, scoring 20 points in the first half alone on his way to a monster 34-point game, a career-high, along with 12 rebounds, tying a career-best.

With Olivari firing on all cylinders, the Owls were able to hold off every Hilltopper advance. Western Kentucky mounted an 11-0 run late in the first half and an 8-0 run in the opening minutes of the second half. Still, Rice kept and maintained the lead. Every time Western Kentucky got back inside of double-digits, Rice had an answer.

The game wouldn’t really get close until the final 30 seconds when Western Kentucky knocked down three long-range threes in separation mode. It still wouldn’t be enough, however, as Max Fiedler, Cameron Sheffield and Mekhi Mason knocked down enough free throws to secure the win.

The win was significant for Rice basketball for several reasons. First, it secures a winning record, Pera’s second at Rice. Second, it’s already the highest single-season win total of Pera’s tenure with four regular season games still to play. Finally, it clinches a season sweep of Western Kentucky, a first for Pera at Rice.

“It shows where we’ve come and kind of where we are,” Pera said. “It’s not about this huge peak and then Rice crashes again. No, we keep getting better, and better. And slow goes the role, I guess, there’s been no huge jumps. But it keeps improving and that is the goal.”

Final Box | Rice 83 – WKU 78

Key takeaway | Fast starts make all the difference

Against Western Kentucky, Rice baseball was the aggressor. They came out early, dictated how the game was going to be played and made Western Kentucky play catch up. Before the game, Pera stressed exactly that to his team. The Owls led at halftime in three of 15 league games and had a -90 point differential.

“I changed everything up, Pera said, “Shoot around, pregame warmup. And they responded, to their credit, with just a lot of energy and togetherness and you could see it. It was 10-0 out of the game and we’ve had a lot of 10-0’s on the other side.”

With an early lead, Rice basketball had breathing room. The pressure to make every shot didn’t seem to be there and the Owls were able to push Western Kentucky inside and limit the three ball. If the Hilltoppers were going to come back, it was going to require a steam stream of two which they ultimately could not deliver. For Rice, this is the formula for winning basketball.

Up Next: at UAB – Thursday, Feb. 22 at 6:30 p.m.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball bounces back emphatically with win over WKU

By

Rice women’s basketball recovered quickly from a Thursday night loss, racing past Western Kentucky to close out their road trip with a win.

More than once in the early goings of Saturday’s game against Western Kentucky, it felt like Rice women’s basketball was about to break away. The Owls amassed an early 19-point lead in the first quarter, but weren’t able to stretch their advantage beyond that and allowed the Hilltoppers to recover. That advantage became 11 in the second quarter, but the home team responded with a 10-0 run of their own to bring the game back within one.

Finally, in the third quarter, the dam broke. Western Kentucky was 1-of-14 from the field in the third quarter meanwhile Rice exploded with a 22-2 run to essentially put the game out of reach. Western Kentucky would get back within 17 at the end of the quarter and get as close as 12 in the fourth frame, but there was never any real threat as Rice held the line and walked out of Bowling Green with an important win.

Final Box | Rice 82 – WKU 64

Key takeaway | Have a ball, Bellamy

Rice women’s basketball hasn’t played a game at full strength since the first weekend of February. For two straight weekends, the Owls have been without the services of either Ashlee Austin or Malia Fisher, arguably their most differential players on the roster. They’re 3-1 in that span, thanks in large part to the efforts of India Bellamy.

In her first 16 games of the season, Bellamy averaged 8.2 points, 3.8 rebounds, 0.9 steals and 0.6 blocks per game, more than serviceable off the bench. But over the last four games, those averages have skyrocketed. Since February 9, Bellamay has been averaging 18.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.3 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. She’s nearly doubled her averages across the board.

There’s no word yet on how long the team will be without Fisher on the court, but regardless of how long Fisher is out, Rice is going to need this version of Bellamy to get to where they want to be. They got it on Saturday with a career-best 27-point game against WKU.

Up Next: vs UAB – Thursday, Feb. 23 at 7:00 p.m.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts