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Rice Basketball: Sizing up Owls vs Ohio in CBI

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14-Seed Rice basketball takes on 3-Seed Ohio in the first round of the CBI Tournament on Saturday. Here’s everything you need to know.

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When: Sat. March 19 at 6:30 p.m.
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Radio: RiceOwls.com
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Sizing up the Rice Owls

Rice basketball is playing in the postseason for the first time under head coach Scott Pera. The program has won at least one conference tournament game in each of the past two seasons and now gets its chance at a postseason berth.

More: Rice basketball accepts bid to CBI Tournament

The Owls have the edge on the offensive efficiency side, shooting 45.9 percent from the floor this season and 37.3 percent from three compared to the Bobcat’s 43.1 percent clip from the floor 34.0 percent from three. Rice has 500 assists on the season compared to Ohio’s 422,

Sizing up the Ohio Bobcats

Ohio reached the semifinals of the MAC Tournament where they fell to Kent State. A season ago, Ohio was a 13-seed in the NCAA Tournament where they upset 4-seed Virginia in the first round. They are led by guard Mark Sears, who is second in the MAC with 19.5 points per game.

The Bobcats protect the basketball well, averaging just 10.5 turnovers per game to the Owls’ 12.5 turnovers. They enter the game with a 24-9 record but picked up five of those losses in their last seven outings.

How Rice got here

By the time Rice basketball reached conference play and returned to full strength following a string of COVID cases that plagued the roster, it was early January. The team was 7-5 following a crushing defeat against North Texas. Then they started winning. More than that — they started looking the part.

Rice beat the eventual Conference USA Tournament champion and NCAA Tournament-bound UAB in a stretch of games in which they went 5-3. Then, in Pera’s own words “Quincy [Olivari] goes down and the whole season changes.” Rice would drop a close game to UTEP following Olivari’s wrist injury that ended his season. Then the Owls would lose six of their final seven regular-season conference games.

Why it matters

It’s been more than a month since Olivari’s injury. When Rice tips off against Ohio, Pera and his staff will have had 10 games to tinker and craft a gameplan that utilized the strengths that still remain. A win would be the first for the program since they won an opening-round game in the CBI in 2017.

A week ago Pera said this team would be “excited as heck” to get a chance to play postseason basketball. After all this team has been through, moving on in the postseason would speak volumes.

Rice has already reached 16 wins, the best of any season of Pera’s tenure, but the success feels somewhat muted because of just how successful many — Pera included — thought this team could have become. There have been a lot of bad breaks along the way. Players are hurt and the roster is thin. But the ball is officially in their court.

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No 2022 postseason for Rice Women’s Basketball

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Rice women’s basketball did not make the field for the WNIT or the WBI, signaling the end of the Owls’ 2022 season.

The Rice women’s basketball regular season came to an end earlier this week when the Owls dropped a hard-fought conference tournament battle to Charlotte, who would go on to cut down the nets in Frisco. At the time, it felt like that wouldn’t be the last we’ll see of the Owls on the court this spring, though. Head coach Lindsay Edmonds predicted as much in the aftermath of that loss.

“I told them I don’t want the season to be over with yet and that their mindset should still be locked in on basketball and continuing to play,” Edmonds said. “They deserve to continue to play. The way we’ve been playing, they deserve to continue to play.”

That next opportunity would not come.

While postseason play once seemed like wishful thinking, it became more and more reasonable for this team to expect one more chance. Rice had won seven of their last nine games with their only two losses since Valentine’s Day coming in overtime to Louisiana Tech and to eventual Conference USA Tournament Champion, Charlotte in the conference tournament.

Rice women’s basketball won the WNIT last season. In fact, WNIT officials had visited the Owls recently. If things didn’t work out on that front, the WBI was also thought to be an option. There was an expectation that tournament would have a place for the Owls if the WNIT did not. By late Sunday night, both fields had been announced. No Rice.

The omission is a disappointment, but the Owls hope to turn it into motivation. Or as Edmonds, reacted late Sunday night, they’ll use it as fuel to the fire.

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Rice Basketball accepts invitation to 2022 CBI Tournament

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Rice basketball has accepted an invitation to participate in the 2022 College Basketball Invitation Tournament, to take place from March 19 to 23.

The season isn’t over quite yet for Rice basketball. After falling to North Texas in the third round of the Conference USA Tournament, the Owls have accepted a bid to the College Basketball Invitation Tournament (CBI). The Tournament will take place from March 19 to 23 with all games at the Daytona Beach Ocean Center in Daytona Beach, FL.

This is the Owls’ second appearance in the CBI. Rice previously made an appearance in 2017 where they defeated San Francisco in the opening round before falling to Utah Valley in the quarterfinals. At that time, the champion of the CBI was determined by a best-of-three series between semifinalists. This year’s tournament reverts to the more traditional single-elimination format throughout all rounds.

Opening round games will be played on Mar. 19 and Mar. 20 with the remaining rounds taking place over the next three days. Should a team play on the second day of opening round games and advance to the finals, they would play four games in four days.

Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera released this statement regarding the news:

“Being invited to the CBI is another positive step for our program. We have improved our win total again this year. Our team has battled all year long and achieved some big wins including Conference USA Tournament wins in back-to-back years for the first time since 2004-05. We have built a sustainable, winning program and to be invited to play in a postseason tournament is another great step as we continue our goal towards playing in March Madness.”

The entire field will be announced exclusively on Twitter on Sunday, March 13 following the announcements of the NCAA Tournament and NIT fields. Like Rice, other programs have already announced their intention to participate. At this time, those additional participants include Troy, VMI, Boston and Asheville.

Update: The 2022 field has been announced. Rice is the No. 14 Seed and will take on Ohio in the first round on Saturday.

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Rice Women’s Basketball’s Cinderella run halted by Charlotte

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For the first time in nearly a month, Rice Women’s Basketball lost in regulation, falling to Charlotte in the Conference USA Tournament.

Once sitting at 0-5 in conference play, Rice women’s basketball found themselves disappointed when they fell to No. 1 seed Charlotte in the third round of the Conference USA Tournament on Thursday afternoon. The Owls had battled the 49ers to the wire, leading roughly midway through the fourth quarter but were unable to close things out.

“I think if you had told me that a month ago, I’d have been like, okay, great,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said in the aftermath. “Today, to be in it and to be so close. [I’m] not into a lot of moral victories so I would have liked to have seen that go the other way.”

It almost did. Rice women’s basketball led by as many as nine points in the first half, doing a tremendous job of keeping the Charlotte offense out of sync. The Owls fell out of rhythm themselves in the third quarter, but were able to settle down, buoyed by three-pointers from Maya Bokunewicz and Ashlee Austin, and keep the game within striking distance right up to the fourth quarter.

Last Time Out: Malia Fisher’s big day lifts Rice Women’s Basketball past Marshall

Trailing by four with 28 seconds to go, Rice would gather three offensive rebounds in the next possession, but none of their putback attempts would fall through the irons. Charlotte would take over, knock down a few more free throws and close it out.

“[I’m] just really proud of them, proud of their effort, proud of their fight,” Edmonds said. “There were times in this game we could have hung our heads, but we didn’t. That’s not who we are. That’s not what we’re about.”

Player Spotlight | Destiny Jackson

Jackson might not have received the accolades or attention some of her fellow young teammates have, but her impact on this basketball team cannot go unnoticed. She’s the glue on offense and led the team on Thursday with 14 points while still contributing a team-high four assists, nabbing four steals and finishing with six rebounds. When she’s productive this team is better. She was great against the 49ers.

Stat Corner | Free throw discrepancies

Both teams featured eerily similar box scores in this contest. They tied with 37 rebounds apiece. Rice had 14 turnovers, Charlotte had 15. Neither shot particularly well, with that shooting lull spilling into the fourth quarter. Free throws were the difference. Charlotte attempted 25 free throws to Rice’s 11 shots from the charity stripe. Had the Owls gotten to the line a few more times this game really could have gone either way.

Final Box | Charlotte 59 – Rice 53

Up Next |

Part of Edmonds’ postgame message was a rallying cry. “I told them I don’t want the season to be over with yet and that their mindset should still be locked in on basketball and continuing to play,” she said. They deserve to continue to play. The way we’ve been playing, they deserve to continue to play.”

Rice will receive consideration from the WNIT, who Edmonds said had been to see Rice play as well as the WBI. Either way, some sort of postseason berth seems like for this team, which ends the regular season as winners of seven of their last nine.

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Rice Basketball bounced by North Texas in CUSA Tournament

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In a game that never felt close, Rice basketball saw its Conference USA Tournament run come to a close in a blowout loss to favorite North Texas.

“Playing with house money” is the phrase Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera used when previewing Thursday night’s game against North Texas when he met with his team following the Owls’ opening win of the Conference USA Tournament over Charlotte. He knew the odds were stacked against his team against the league’s No. 1 squad. He was right.

North Texas hit Rice hard from the jump, converting their first nine two-point shots. Whether it was Max Fiedler or Myljael Poteat inside, Rice had no answer in the paint. At the same time, Rice struggled to get into any sort of offensive rhythm against Conference USA’s best defensive squad.

“We didn’t bring our A-game and that’s what happens,” Pera said, summing up a rough two hours of basketball in one quaint refrain.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball pounds the paint, tops Charlotte in CUSA Tourney

Trailing 14-9 in the first half, the Owls sputter became a slump.  A 14-0 North Texas run spanned part of a 10 minute, 34-second streak in which Rice didn’t hit a single field goal. They missed all eight of their shots during that time. By the time Max Fiedler finally got the Owls a bucket, the North Texas lead had ballooned to 20 points. Rice would go into halftime down by 18.

Rice wouldn’t find any relief after the break. Beat up and, as Pera put it without “a ton of juice”, things spiraled. North Texas’ first three field goals of the second half were three-pointers, giving them six triples to the Owls’ singular made three.

With the edge on the boards, in the paint and from distance, there wasn’t much Rice was able to do to fight back. North Texas would sprint through the half, closing out their third win of the season over Rice in convincing fashion.

Player Spotlight | Mylyjael Poteat

Poteat subbed in quickly once it became clear North Texas would have its way on the interior of both sides of the court. He struggled at times against the Mean Green, too, but finished with a team-high 10 points and four rebounds, missing time with an apparent injury suffered on his way to the basket. On a night filled with misses, Poteat made 4-of-5 and remains a bright spot for the future.

Stat Corner | Two

There were a myriad of stats that went against the Owls in a game that got away from them rather quickly. Perhaps the most fitting was the Owls’ hallmark measure: three-point shots. Rice made just two three-point shots, a season-low. They’d been held to three or fewer triples by just one other opponent this season, fittingly, North Texas who had held them to three apiece in each of their previous meetings.

Final Box | North Texas 58 – Rice 50

Up Next |

The Conference USA Tournament loss marks the end of all currently scheduled games for Rice basketball. As things currently stand, they’ll be in the mix for postseason action. Details of if the Owls make any field and who/when they’ll play next will be made available in the coming days.

Pera said he believes there might still be a postseason spot for this team. “Any time we can late in March in this program, that’s the goal. That’s what we’re striving to do,” he said of any potential postseason bid. “We’ll be exciting as heck to get that opportunity.”

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