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Rice Basketball closes out to win over UTSA at home

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Although the weather was cold, Rice basketball stayed hot, downing UTSA at Tudor Fieldhouse to improve to 6-4 in C-USA play.

Almost from wire to wire, Rice basketball was the better team when they took the court on Thursday night at Tudor Fieldhouse to play UTSA. After opening the season with a brutal stretch that featured some of the league’s best teams, Rice has played back-to-back games against Southern Miss and UTSA — teams that currently sit at the bottom of the standings — and the Owls were able to pull away to secure wins against each.

The Thursday tilt with UTSA started innocently enough. The teams traded baskets early with UTSA leading 8-6 after four minutes were in the books. Then Rice began to heat up. The Owls went on a dominant 19-7 run, doing the fast majority of their damage inside. Max Fiedler needed less than 12 minutes of game time to reach double-digit points.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball surges past Southern Miss

UTSA would go on a run of their own in the closing minutes of the first half to cut what had been a 17-point Rice lead down to four at the break. Rather than get rattled, Rice took the interlude to take a deep breath and came out ready in the second half.

No matter how hard UTSA pushed, Rice had an answer. The Roadrunners tied the game up with back-to-back baskets right out of the game before Rice answered with an 11-2 run to widen the gap once more. Neither team would score more than two consecutive shots before the other snuck in, that was until Rice hit three in a row to take a 70-61 with under eight minutes to play.

Rice would hold on down the stretch, adjusting well to whatever the UTSA defense threw at them late in the game, finding good shots and ruining any hopes the Roadrunners had for a late rally.

Player Spotlight | Travis Evee

On a night where the Owls’ opponents made some runs, Rice needed just about everyone to step up. Carl Pierre and Fiedler paved the way early, but it was Evee’s consistent shooting stroke that kept the team moving.

Evee connected on seven of his 11 shots from the field, scoring 16 points. He had five assists and four rebounds while only turning the ball over once. He was as constant as anyone on the team and his back-to-back triples to start the second half were absolutely crucial.

Stat Corner | Take it to the basket

Rice basketball will always be known for their propensity to shoot from far away, but they put on a clinic on how to get to the hoop on Thursday against UTSA. The Owls attempted just six three-pointers, making two, on their way to a massive first-half lead. They scored 28 of their first 44 points in the paint, finishing with 46 points in the paint. They outscored UTSA 18 to 2 on fastbreak points.

It’s more than evident this team has evolved and grown on offense. They’re a balanced scoring team that continues to develop their defensive chops as the season progresses.

Final Box | Rice 91 – UTSA 78

Up Next | Full Schedule

The second of a four-game homestand will take place on Saturday when Rice basketball hosts UTEP at Tudor Fieldhouse. From there the Owls will play North American on Tuesday, Feb. 8 and North Texas on Saturday, Feb. 12.

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Rice Women’s Basketball can’t keep up with hot-shooting Southern Miss

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Rice women’s basketball fell behind and couldn’t recover, dropping their Saturday home tilt against Southern Miss.

Fresh off their first conference win of the season, Rice women’s basketball opened Saturday’s contest with Southern Miss the same way they’ve begun the majority of their recent games, with a strong first-quarter run.

Rice jumped out to a 9-2 lead, propelled by a set of layups and a three-pointer from Maya Bokunewicz. Then they powered through a run from Southern Miss that ate up the seven-point advantage and turned into a three-point deficit by the time the opening quarter was through. Then things started to spiral.

The Owls shot 36.4 percent from the field in the second quarter but it was the seven turnovers that paralyzed the team and handed too many extra opportunities to the visiting team. Southern Miss scored 15 of their 17 second-quarter points off Rice turnovers, opening up a 12-point halftime advantage.

Last Time Out: Rice Women’s Basketball holds off LA Tech for first C-USA win

Southern Miss would only heat up from there, dominating Rice on the boards in the second half 18 to 10 and shooting at a blistering 60.9 percent clip in the final 20 minutes of action. Try as they might, Rice could not keep up defensively and was unable to slow down the league’s top shooting offense.

The loss drops Rice women’s basketball’s record to 6-9 and 1-6 in Conference USA play. Five of the seven teams in the West Division currently have losing conference records.

Player Spotlight | Destiny Jackson

Jackson was one of three Owls who reached double-digit points in Saturday’s loss. She was one of the most accurate shooters on the team, converting 4-of-7 attempts and her lone three-point try. She also contributed seven assists, three rebounds, two steals and a block. Everyone on the team is being asked to do a variety of things. Jackson played well in several facets despite the loss.

Final Box | Southern Miss 78 – Rice 55

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball will play their next three games on the road starting next weekend with a Thursday trip to UTSA and a Saturday visit to UTEP. They’ll finish the road trip the following Thursday, Feb. 10, at North Texas.

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Rice Basketball surges past Southern Miss on the road

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Rice basketball showed great composure, weathering a second-half cold snap to secure a comfortable win at Southern Miss.

A pair of three-point baskets from Southern Miss signaled the beginning of a shotgun start in their Saturday tilt with Rice basketball. Both programs shot well early on with Rice carving out a modest six-point halftime lead thanks in part to a blistering 64 percent field goal percentage in the first half that dwarfed a respectable 40 percent showing from the floor by Southern Miss.

The offenses would cool off in the second half, but the margin would grow. The streaky Owls endured a 1-for-10 cold snap in the middle of the half but somehow were able to fend off the Golden Eagles who endured an equally frustrating 3-for-10 stretch over the same span. With neither offense moving, defenses and free throws took over.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball goes cold from three in loss to LA Tech

The win ensures Rice basketball their fourth consecutive Conference USA weekend with no worse than a split in their Thursday/Saturday contest. The Owls sit at 5-4 in conference play with a set of four consecutive home games on the horizon.

Player Spotlight | Max Fiedler

The rise of Mylyjael Poteat has led to a couple of quiet weeks from Rice center Max Fiedler. Coming into this game, he hadn’t played more than 25 minutes since Nov. 30 against Texas State and he hadn’t reached double-digit points since Rice played Jarvis Christian on Dec. 4.

Fiedler surpassed both marks on Saturday, scoring 14 points in 33 minutes, adding 10 rebounds. It was his fifth double-double of the season. It might be no coincidence the Owls are 5-0 in those games.

Stat Corner | Multi-dimensional offense

Rice basketball produced their most anemic three-point shooting performance on the season on Thursday against Louisiana Tech. The Owls were unable to overcome a lagging showing from beyond the arc in part because they didn’t complement it with a particularly dangerous offense from inside the arc. They flipped that script on Saturday.

The Owls shot a mediocre 33.3 percent from three-point land, but were 52.9 percent overall from the floor and scored 32 points in the paint. Being able to still find success shooting the basketball on slower nights from the team as a whole will be crucial going forward. As for the deep shooters, Carl Pierre and Quincy Olivari both shot .500 from three. That’ll be good enough on most nights.

Final Box | Rice 76 – Southern Miss 62

Up Next | Full Schedule

Following this brief two-game road trip, Rice basketball heads back to Tudor Fieldhouse for a four-game homestand beginning next Thursday night against UTSA. Then they’ll play UTEP on Saturday, Feb. 5 before finishing the stretch with North American on Tuesday, Feb. 8 and North Texas on Saturday, Feb. 12.

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Rice Women’s Basketball holds on against LA Tech for first C-USA win

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Rice women’s basketball dug deep and found a way to win at home, holding on down the stretch to top Louisiana Tech for the Owls’ first C-USA win.

Seeking their first Conference USA win of head coach Lindsay Edmon’s tenure, Rice women’s basketball showed no signs of weariness following last week’s four-overtime loss at Charlotte. Even with their short bench, the time off looked to give the Owls enough time to capture their collective breath, rest and attack their next opponent with intensity, giving Louisiana Tech all they could handle for 40 minutes and walking away victorious.

“I’m just so happy for this team,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “We went through a lot. We’ve had adversity with injuries, with COVID, with low numbers. And with the four-overtime game this past weekend we could have easily came in here feeling ‘Woe is me, we’re 0-5’ and just not performed the way that we did. I am just so proud of their effort. I am so proud of them coming in tonight and competing the way they did and being rewarded for their efforts.”

As they’ve proven accustomed to in recent weeks, Rice started fast, making three of their first five shots on their way to an 11-4 lead. Louisiana Tech would battle back, tying the game up at 16 apiece by the time the first quarter ended. Things stayed close for the early portions of the second period until the Owls ripped off a 16-4 run. They’d double up the Lady Techster’s in the second quarter 24-12 on their way to a 12-point halftime advantage.

Last Time Out: Rice Women’s Basketball comes up short in 4OT battle at Charlotte

Staked to a double-digit lead, Rice women’s basketball was now tasked with doing something they’d yet to do this year: close out a conference win. Both teams traded buckets in the third quarter, splitting points 18-18. Neither team hit more than two shots from the floor before the other answered. That brought both teams to the fourth quarter and Rice 10 minutes away from an important milestone.

Edmonds relayed this message to the team in those final minutes: “Basketball is a game of runs. There’s always going to be runs. You’re hoping that your the team that makes the most runs. I think LA Tech made a little bit of a run there and we needed to get stops,” she said. “That was basically what my message was: get stops.”

Things would get higher than Rice would have hoped for, but for every run, the Owls had a stop and an answer.  Louisiana Tech was able to get the game within four points before Malia Fisher hit a layup and Ashlee Austin drained a pair of free throws and a jumper to quell the rally. Louisiana Tech would get back within five in the final minute but Rice hit was sturdy enough from the charity stripe and was able to seal the win.

The milestone did not go noticed. “This team has been through a lot. We’ve faced a lot of adversity,” guard Ashlee Austin said after the game. “We really bounced back. Today we played as a team.”

Player Spotlight | Ashlee Austin

Austin led all players in scoring despite playing just 27 minutes, the fewest of any of the Owls’ five starters. Although she admitted to feeling the effects of the extended outing against Charlotte, she showed no signs of wear against Louisiana Tech. When the team needed to dig deep, she was there. She scored 27 points, added five rebounds had one assist and four blocks.

Stat Corner | Get to the stripe

Rice women’s basketball was far from perfect from the free throw line on Thursday night, but their aggressive to get themselves the extra shots paid off in a big way. Rice attempted 30 free throws to Louisiana Tech’s 16. The Owls would make 22 of those, providing them just enough of a cushion down the stretch to secure their first C-USA win of the season.

Final Box | Rice 72 – LA Tech 64

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball has one more home game left on the schedule this weekend before making their first three-game road trip of the season next week. They’ll start at UTSA on Thursday before venturing to UTEP for a Saturday contest. The Owls close the trip out with a game at North Texas the following Thursday.

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Rice Basketball sputters from deep, drops road tilt at Louisiana Tech

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Rice basketball couldn’t find their stroke from deep, dropping a road contest to Louisiana Tech in one-sided fashion.

Rice basketball knew they’d be in for a tough one when they hit the road for Ruston, Louisiana on Thursday night. Although Louisiana Tech had fallen to UAB the weekend prior and lost their status as the conference’s lone unbeaten team, the Bulldogs were still one of the best teams the Owls had on the schedule this season. It was going to be a challenge.

Halfway through the first half, Rice looked to be up to the task. The Owls led by as many as five points and never trailed in the first nine minutes of regulation. Then Rice, leading 20-18, missed nine of 10 shots and watched as a close game turned extremely perilous in the span of a few trips down the court.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball slips at home, falls to Charlotte

The two-man tandem of Kenneth Lofton and Cobe Williams proved lethal in this game. Both mean reached double-digit scoring in the first half, helping Louisiana Tech stretch a small lead to a 15-point halftime advantage. Rice was able to claw away part of the deficit in the second half, relying heavily on Mylyjael Poteat in the post. His inside presence proved stabilizing for most of the second half before Louisiana Tech regained their shooting stroke.

After Rice cut the deficit to single digits, Louisiana Tech rattled off a 10-0 run, their second such double-digit streak of the evening. Rice did a lot of things well, but those two spurts proved too much for the team to overcome on an off shooting night on the road where the Owls made just 32.8 percent of their field goals compared to Louisiana Tech’s much better 48.5 percent from the floor.

Player Spotlight | Quincy Olivari

Olivari’s season started slow, in large part because of a wrist injury that hampered his shooting stroke. His contributions on offense were limited as he worked to get back to full strength. He’d had a few strong showings, highlighted by a 27-point outburst against Houston Baptist. His 18 points and 10 rebounds marked his most productive contest since then and his first career double-double.

Stat Corner | Off the mark

Rice basketball has come a long way from its live-by-the-three, die-by-the-three reality in recent seasons. The defense has improved and the team has found a reliable inside presence in Poteat whom they can turn to when the outside shots aren’t falling. They won’t shoot the lights out of the gym every night, but they’re going to have to at least find some level of success to win games like this.

Thursday was a bad night from three, marring what could have been a much closer contest. Rice made 4-of-26 three-point shots, an abysmal 15 percent. The Owls are 1-6 this season when making less than 33 percent of their triples. They’re 10-2 in all other games. Some of those included white-hot outside shooting performances, but many of them didn’t. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it can’t be 15 percent.

Final Box | LA Tech 80 – Rice 63

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball completes its current two-game road trip on Saturday in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss. From there they’ll head home for a three-game homestand featuring games against UTSA (Thursday, Feb 3), UTEP (Saturday, Feb 5) and North Texas (Saturday, Feb 12).

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