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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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Conference USA Basketball 2022: January 24 Roundup

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Conference USA Basketball nearing the halfway point of league play. What have we learned so far and where does each team stack up against the rest?

Team NET  KenPom Record
Charlotte 162 209 10-7 (3-2)
FAU 136 147 11-8 (4-2)
FIU 236 245 12-7 (2-4)
LA Tech 85 85 15-4 (6-1)
Marshall 246 222 7-12 (0-6)
MTSU 118 141 12-6 (3-2)
North Texas 55 67 13-4 (6-1)
Old Dominion 221 203 7-11 (2-3)
Rice 164 180 11-7 (4-3)
Southern Miss 325 317 6-12 (1-4)
UAB 37 41 16-4 (6-1)
UTEP 185 182 11-8 (4-3)
UTSA 339 326 7-13 (0-7)
WKU 139 121 10-9 (2-4)
Kenpom rankings and standings as of 1/23/2022

Key Storylines

Wild, Wild West

The race for the top of the West Division got much more interesting this weekend when UAB went into Ruston and walked away with a relatively comfortable road win over Louisiana Tech. That leaves UAB, Louisiana Tech and North Texas tied atop the West with 6-1 conference records. Rice and UTEP, both 4-3, remain within striking distance.

Owls on the move

Florida Atlantic has won three in a row, completing a perfect three-game homestand against Charlotte, WKU and Marshall. The Owls began conference play 1-2 and fell near the bottom of the standings. Now they sit alone in first place atop the division. Their namesake counterparts, Rice, posted an emphatic win of their own over the weekend, finishing their game against Old Dominion on a 16-0 run.

Toppers in a tailspin?

Western Kentucky was expected to be among the best teams in Conference USA entering the season. They didn’t receive any first-place votes, but they were a clear No. 3 choice in the conference’s preseason poll. There wasn’t reason to panic after a narrow loss to Louisiana Tech on the road to start conference play, but their recent three-game has to at least raise some concern. They host UAB and Middle Tennessee next week. Getting a split would, at the very least, ease some anxiety.

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Rice Basketball falters late, loses at home to Charlotte

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Rice basketball couldn’t hit the shots they needed to down the stretch, dropping a winnable home tilt against Charlotte and moving to 4-3 in C-USA play.

There are days when the ball bounces your way and there are days it rims out. On Saturday against Charlotte, that clang off the iron went against Rice Basketball, who fell at home in a back-and-forth game the Owls would probably like to have back.

Charlotte struck first, jumping out to a 4-0 lead, their largest advantage in a game they’d win by three, matching by an 8-4 advantage minutes later. Rice quickly countered, clambering out to a 15-11 lead at the midpoint of the first half, scoring six straight points. Neither team would go on a run longer than that at any point in the contest.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball blanks ODU down the stretch, slams door at home

Rice was uninspiring from three, connecting on just 7-of-22 from beyond the arc. The Owls shot a modest 42 percent from the field and held their own on the boards. Charlotte’s advantage came in their scoring. The 49ers shot 53.3 percent in the game and 59.1 percent in the second half. That accuracy proved to be the difference, down to the final shot.

Carl Pierre, who had been lights-out from deep in his previous two outings, made three of his eight triples in the game, missing two threes in the final six seconds, either of which would have likely pushed the game into overtime. In a relatively evenly matched game, it served as a synopsis of the 40-minute slugfest: Charlotte made the plays when it counted. Rice did not.

Player Spotlight | Mylyjael Poteat

On a night when Rice wasn’t quite on the mark from long range, Mylyjael Poteat played a huge role in the paint. The up-and-coming center led all scorers with 15 points, knocking going 6-of-9 from the field and 3-0f-4 from the free throw line. Head coach Scott Pera has been extremely complementary of his growth all season, noting his growth from last season to this one.

“He’s played a lot more basketball. He’s getting used to the speed,” Pera said of Poteat. “We knew he was a really good player when we recruited him. Now he’s starting to really take advantage of his minutes.

Stat Corner | When it counts

It wasn’t a great afternoon shooting the basketball for Rice, but they shot well enough to have the chance to win the game late. It’s what happened in the final two minutes that made the difference and should serve as a teaching tool for a team that aspires to make some noise in the conference tournament.

With 1:52 on the clock, Poteat hit a layup to tie the game at 62. From that point onward, Rice did not hit another shot outside the paint. Their only points following Poteat’s layup was a dunk from Poteat with 18 seconds remaining. Travis Evee missed a layup. Chris Mullins was called for a charge and turned it over. Pierre missed from deep, twice. The great teams find a way to get at least one of those shots to go in. They had some good lucks. Things just didn’t work out in the last 90 seconds.

Final Box | Char 67 – Rice 64

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball went 1-1 on the homestand and will now return to the road next week. On Thursday they’ll pay a visit to Louisiana Tech before playing at Southern Miss on Saturday.

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Rice Women’s Basketball comes up just short in 4OT game at Charlotte

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Rice women’s basketball came harrowingly close to their first C-USA victory season on Saturday, falling in quadruple overtime on the road at Charlotte.

From the moment the ball was tipped, Rice women’s basketball traded blows with Charlotte from Saturday afternoon into the early evening. The 49ers took an early advantage, leading 16-10 at the end of the first quarter. The shots didn’t seem to be falling for Rice at the start of the contest, but the team stayed composed, leaning on a strong defensive performance to erase the early deficit and go into halftime tied.

Charlotte shot 43.8 percent from the field in the first quarter. In the second Rice held the home team to just two field goals and six total points. Rice trailed for the majority of that time, leading by one point for 12 seconds before Charlotte knocked down a free throw in the final seconds before the halftime break.

Last Time Out: Rice Women’s Basketball fizzles late, falls to Old Dominion

It was all Charlotte at the onset of the third quarter. The 49ers came out firing, jumping out to an 11-point lead thanks to a 16-6 run to start the second half. Rather than fold, the Owls dug deep and went on a 12-5 run of their own to put themselves in striking distance entering the fourth. From there, Rice closed the gap and Haylee Swayze gave Rice their first lead of the game on a jumper with 3:42 to go in the fourth quarter.

Charlotte would tie it up and send the game to overtime. Rice took the lead, then Charlotte hit a runner at the buzzer to force double overtime. Rice took the lead, then Charlotte hit a triple in the final seconds to force a third extra period. The Owls missed what would have been the game-winner at the close of the third overtime before Charlotte was able to wrestle the game away in the fourth and final overtime period.

Player Spotlight | Ashlee Austin

Ashlee Austin was one of the most productive scorers in Conference USA before the Owls almost month-long hiatus in late December. Before that break, Austin was averaging 18.1 points per game. In the four games following, she averaged 7.3 points per game. That’s part of what made her 30 point outburst on Saturday so impactful.

Austin was 10-0f-19 from the field, tallying 17 of those 30 points in regulation before a series of key buckets in overtime. In double overtime, it was Austin who put Rice ahead with less than two minutes to play. She added a pair of shots in the third overtime as the Owls traded blows with the 49ers. Finally, she rounded out her final box score with seven rebounds and two assists.

Stat Corner | Five

Five different Owls played more than 40 minutes to earn the win against Charlotte, that includes Destiny Jackson who fouled out of the game. Short benches mean more minutes for everyone, including a brief appearance from Savannah May, a student manager who was added to the roster on Friday the day before the game.

Stretching players that thin can’t be the recipe every outing, but with a five-day break looming and a real chance to earn the team’s first conference win of the year, everything was on the table. If recent weeks are any indication, the starting five are going to have to carry a heavy load the rest of the way.

Final Box | Charlotte 88 – Rice 83 (4 OT)

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball wrapped up their road trip on Saturday and will head home for a two-game stint next weekend. They’ll host Louisiana Tech on Thursday before playing Southern Miss on Saturday.

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