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Max Fiedler triple-double lifts Rice Basketball past UTSA

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Rice basketball fell behind big, but rallied late with Max Fiedler’s triple-double outing powering the Owls past UTSA on the road.

Following a stretch of games in which Rice basketball had built early leads and tried to hold on, the Owls found themselves in the exact opposite scenario on Monday night at UTSA. The Owls went ice cold from the three-point line while UTSA began the night on a heater. Rice began the night 2-of-12 from long range. UTSA started with makes on 8-of-14 triples. And just like that, an 18-point UTSA lead materialized.

Somehow, Rice thundered back. With 4:02 to play, the Owls trailed by 10. With 1:45 to go, they trailed by six. Finally, with 1.1 on the clock and the Owls nursing a miraculous one-point lead, Rice sent UTSA’s Japhet Medor to the line to shoot two. He made one and overtime commenced.

Cameron Sheffield and Mekhi Mason put Rice in front by five, then Travis Evee and Quincy Olivari followed with a combination of threes and free throws to build a nine-point advantage. They’d win by that margin, capping off one of the more improbable comebacks in the conference this season.

Final Box | Rice 88 – UTSA 79 (OT)

Key takeaway | Triple-Double Max

Max Fiedler has been praised for his ability as a facilitator for years. The veteran big man is one of the best in the game when it comes to getting the ball to his teammates, but cracking the double-digit mark in assists on Monday (11) set up an even more impressive feat. With 13 rebounds and 24 points, Fiedler became the second player in program history to record a triple-double.

The assists came in overtime, part of an incredible performance that sparked the thrilling come-from-behind victory. It’s not uncommon for Fiedler’s contributions on the court to go well beyond what shows up in the box score. Against UTSA, that box score reflected his significance loud and clear.

Up Next: at North Texas – Thursday, Jan. 19 at 7:00 p.m.

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Rice Women’s Basketball rallies to beat UTSA

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Rice women’s basketball fought through some early shooting woes and exploded from the three-point line to beat UTSA.

Rice women’s basketball was clearly looking for an early three-point bonanza against UTSA but the expected fireworks fizzled early on. The Owls shot a miserable 1-for-12 on three-pointers in the first quarter alone, accounting for nearly seventy percent of their average of 18.6 three-point attempts for the game in the first 10 minutes as they fell behind 20-12.

Despite falling behind, Rice did not abandon the game plan. They took 10 more three-pointers in the second quarter, this time hitting four of them, and rallied to retake the lead in the final minute before halftime.  After trailing by as many as 11, the Owls were right back in the mix at the break.

Both teams traded blows in the third before Rice appeared to have opened up a commanding fourth quarter lead, going up 11 points on a three by Katelyn Crosthwait with 3:19 to play. UTSA would claw back to within two points in the final 30 seconds, but Rice did enough to hang on for the win.

Final Box | Rice 78 – UTSA 76

Key takeaway |  Three-point throwdown

Head coach Lindsay Edmonds and her staff had noticed UTSA play more zone in a recent game and was ready to act on it should the Roadrunners do something similar against the Owls on Monday. They did, and the Owls took to the air.

Even with some early misses, Edmonds stayed the course, despite turning to the scorer’s table at one point to check how many threes they had taken to that point — 14 — “Oh my goodness,” was her only reply.

“A lot of our threes were coming from three of our best three-point shooters,” she said afterward. “Those are what those players do, So I have no problems with them taking good shots.”

Edmonds did admit the quality of shot improved as the team entered the heart of the second quarter, moving the ball more effectively and playing inside out. That set up leading scorer Katelyn Crosthwait for a massive evening. She connected on 7-of-14 threes, scoring a team-high 23 points.

“Threes are my thing. That’s what I rep every single off day,” Crosthwait said win a grin.

Up Next: vs North Texas – Thursday, Jan. 19 at 7:00 p.m.

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Rice Basketball Roundup: MBB and WBB vs UTEP

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Both Rice basketball teams were in action against UTEP on Saturday. Here’s a brief rundown of how the men and women faired and what’s next for both.

Rice Basketball

Rice basketball fended off an early UTEP run then made a thriller at the buzzer to notch their first conference home win of the season.

After failing to hold sizable leads in previous games, Rice basketball was handed a very different game script on Saturday against UTEP. The game began with a modest back and forth before a 13-3 UTEP run late in the first half put Rice into a perilous position. Quincy Olivari quickly keyed an 11-2 Rice spurt to return the game back to near level in the waning minutes of the first half.

Already survivors of an early scare, Rice entered the second half motivated. Olivari and Travis Evee strung together a trio of three-pointers and a few more buckets, a 13-0 run, which put Rice back in front for the first time since the 11:25 mark in the first half.

It wouldn’t be easy, though. UTEP took the lead on a free throw with six seconds to play. Then Evee took the ball down the court and put one up at the buzzer, watching it fall through the net for the game-winner.

Final Box | Rice 83 – UTEP 82

Key takeaway | In the hunt

Entering Saturday, eight of the 11 teams in Conference USA were within one game of .500 in league play, with most hovering somewhere between 2-3 and 3-3. If Rice basketball had hopes of contending for an upper-half finish in the conference they needed to avoid falling too far in the race early on in the season. They did that this weekend, earning an important win to move back to .500 in league play.

The Owls were one of only two teams in the conference without a home win in league play prior to this important victory. Head coach Scott Pera is quick to preach the significance of taking care of home court, and they achieved that today.

Up Next: at UTSA – Monday, Jan. 16 at 7:00 p.m.

Rice Women's Basketball

Rice women’s basketball was able to build a lead and maintain it, taking down UTEP on the road for their second conference win.

On New Year’s Eve, Rice women’s basketball beat UTEP to stop a losing skid. On Saturday, they did it again, taking down the Miners for the second time this season. The game was tight early, with the Owls holding small leads in the first and second quarters with both teams shooting well early on. Things began to shift in the third quarter when the Rice defensive effort was cranked up to another level.

UTEP was held to 7.1 percent shooting in the third frame, making just one shot from the field. That stingy defense, combined with a 50 percent shooting mark of their own from the floor, helped Rice open up an 18-point advantage which proved too big for the Miners to climb out of, even with a stronger fourth quarter.

“I felt we imposed our will for 40 minutes. We really executed the defensive gameplan and we then we had a really balanced attack on the offensive end,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. ” You saw a lot of effort and energy, but most importantly, I just liked our focus.”

Final Box | Rice 73 – UTEP 62

Key takeaway | Confidence builder

With the loss, UTEP falls to 4-2 in conference play, undefeated in games against all other foes except for the Rice Owls. The win was important, if for no other reason that to soothe any anxieties associated with a prolonged losing streak. But more than that, it was a win against a very good conference foe.

UTEP is second in the conference standings right now and Rice has already beaten the Miners twice. Middle Tennessee (6-0) is playing exceptional basketball right now, but everyone else in the conference is on the Owls’ level — as things currently stand — and we’ve seen this team hang with great teams over the past year and a half.

Every team has tough stretches of its season for one reason or another. Notching a second win against this team proves that this Rice women’s basketball squad can be a real force if they’re clicking at the right time.

Up Next: vs UTSA – Monday, Jan. 16 at 7:00 p.m.

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Rice Basketball Roundup: MBB and WBB each fall to MTSU

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Both Rice basketball teams were in action against Middle Tennessee. Here’s a brief rundown of how the men and women faired and what’s next for both.

Rice Basketball

A last-second three-point attempt at the buzzer hit iron as Rice basketball ran out of time for a second-half comeback against MTSU.

Rice basketball arrived ready to play on Wednesday night against MTSU. Things were back and forth for a few minutes before Rice basketball started to click.

Travis Evee knocked down a couple of threes to help spark a 32-12 finish to the first half. The Owls shot the ball well, connecting on 50 percent of their shots from the floor in the first half, but defended even better, holding the Blue Raiders to 10 field goals before the break on 33 percent shooting.

Middle Tennessee would get their sea legs in the second half, cutting a 14-point Rice lead down to a single point with just over nine minutes to play. Then, after some back and forth, they’d take their first lead of the second half with just over five minutes remaining in the contest. Rice had their chances, including a three-point shot at the buzzer, but they ran out of time.

Final Box | MTSU 71 – Rice 68

Key takeaway | Which team is it going to be?

It was hard to avoid feeling like the sky was falling on Rice basketball through the first eight days of their 2022-2023 season. The Owls opened the season with a 39-point defeat against Pepperdine (a team they handled comfortably last season) and followed it up seven days later with a 35-point loss to Middle Tennessee. The season has just started and things were already a mess.

Since then? Rice is 9-3 with crucial conference wins over WKU and UTEP and a heartbreaking Middle Tennessee team that embarrassed them in Murfeesborro two months ago. Even Wednesday was a tale of two halves. The first half looked like the team that played through most of December. The second half was reminiscent of the November version.

Head coach Scott Pera took the loss hard on himself, calling the team’s second half defense “atrocious” and vowing “I have to do better,” as a string of challenging league games await them.

Guard Quincy Olivari shared the disappointment but was resolute in his focus on moving forward and climb out of their 2-3 conference start. “We can only win one game at a time,” he said. ” We can only focus on the next game ahead.”

Up Next: vs UTEP – Saturday, Jan. 14 at 2:00 p.m.

Rice Women's Basketball

Rice women’s basketball put together an early push, but fell apart late, getting blown out on the road against Middle Tennessee.

Middle Tennesse made one field goal in the first four and a half minutes of regulation, allowing Rice women’s basketball to build an early 9-3 advantage. After some challenging starts for the Owls, an early lead felt meaningful, but it quickly disappeared. They ended the quarter trailing by three and were outscored by the same 16-16 margin in the second quarter, too.

Trailing by six at halftime, things started going further south until — as the broadcast put it — “the wheels came off.” Rice was outscored 53-30 in the second half. Leading players Malia Fisher and Ashlee Austin each fouled out. The team shot 32.7 percent from the field in the game and allowed MTSU to shoot 51.6 percent. Rice missed nine free throws. It wasn’t a good night.

Final Box | MTSU 85 – Rice 56

Key takeaway | Something isn’t right

For the fourth time in their last five games, Rice women’s basketball has lost. They’ve also allowed 74 points or more in all four of those losses, a scoring threshold they’d allowed opponents to pass just twice in their first eight games that didn’t reach overtime. The defense hasn’t been stellar in recent weeks.

But that’s not the only cause for concern. Rice scored at least 76 points in their first six games of the season, only failing to reach that mark three times in the non-conference play, against Texas A&M, TCU and Sam Houston (all wins). In five conference games, Rice has scored 76 points zero times.

There haven’t been significant changes to player availability. They aren’t playing teams that are drastically more talented than they are. But something isn’t working. It’s time to go back to the drawing board and figure it out, beginning with a win against UTEP on Saturday.

Up Next: at UTEP – Saturday, Jan. 14 at 1:00 p.m.

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Rice Women’s Basketball: 2022-2023 New Year’s State of the Program

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After a program-best start, Rice women’s basketball has hit a rough patch. Here’s where the Owls stand with the bulk of Conference USA play ahead.

Rice women’s basketball couldn’t have asked for a better start to its 2022-2023 season. The Owls roared out to a 9-0 start, picking up a slew of in-start victories over rival programs and a few hard-fought wins on the west coast as well. Everything was going right… until it wasn’t.

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A cold spell to open conference play has put this program in a lurch. Can they right the ship, and if so, how quickly can the turnaround begin? Let’s dig in.

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