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Rice Women’s Basketball: Owls headed to WNIT for postseason play

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The Rice women’s basketball season ends without an NCAA Tournament selection. Instead, the Owls are headed to WNIT for postseason play.

Rice women’s basketball lost a heartbreaker to Middle Tennesse in the Conference USA Championship Game on Saturday. Rice trailed by as many as 10 points in the second half but thundered back to make it a one-score game in the final seconds.

The loss marks the first conference tournament defeated in the last three sees for Rice. It also means the Owls’ long-hoped automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament disappeared as well. Hoping for an at-large selection, Rice was disappointed when their name was not called on Selection Monday.

The Owls season is not over yet, though. Rice will accept an invitation to the WNIT as an automatic qualifier. Rice will play Arizona State in their first round matchup.

Fellow Conference USA squad Charlotte has also made the field. They’ll play Florida. Rice women’s basketball will play its first game on Friday. It can be streamed on FloHoops.

Podcast: Former Rice football star Christian Covington talks football, Marvel

The structure for the tournament has been tweaked. Each of the four regions will include an opening round on Friday, March 19 followed by a second-round on Saturday, March 20 featuring semifinal matchups and a consolation round. The finals for the championship bracket and consolation bracket will be played on Monday, March 22.

Rice last played in the WNIT in 2018. The Owls defeated Texas State in Round 1 before falling to New Mexico in Round 2. Rice last made the NCAA Tournament in 2019, falling in overtime to Marquette in College Station, TX.

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Rice Women’s Basketball: Rally falls short vs MTSU in CUSA Tournament finale

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Rice women’s basketball lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds to Middle Tennesee in 2021 Conference USA Tournament Championship Game.

Middle Tennessee was picked to win Conference USA in the preseason polls. Rice women’s basketball were the defending champs and finished with the best record in the regular season. It was only fitting that these were the two teams pitted against each other in the conference championship game on Saturday night.

A rematch of the 2019 Championship Game between these two teams, the 2021 edition shared an eerie resemblance early on. Middle Tennessee took a modest 32-26 lead into halftime, never getting too far ahead, but doing enough to keep Rice off balance. Courtney Witson’s five three-pointers in the first half were crucial to Middle Tennessee’s early success.

Both teams went on runs in the third quarter, with Rice clawing ever so slightly closer. In the fourth quarter, Nancy Mulkey got hot. She scored the first six points in the final frame, giving Rice the lead for the first time since they led 6-5 in the first quarter.

Podcast: Former Rice football star Christian Covington talks football, Marvel

Then came a heart-stopping finale. Middle Tennessee went on an 11-0 run to go up by 10. Rice responded with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to three. Trailing by two, Rice had the ball with a chance to force overtime, but a pass to Mulkey in the paint was knocked away leaving Rice with little more than a full-court hail mary on the ensuing possession that fell short.

Mulkey finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks. Katelyn Crosthwait and Jasmine Smith both had 13 points, with Smith tallying a double-double with 10 rebounds.

After the game, head coach Tina Langley took the blame for the heartbreaking result: “In the end, I thought I could have made some better decisions for our team,” she said. “I thought they fought their tails off. Really this is on me.”

With the win, Middle Tennesee clinches an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Rice women’s basketball will now await their postseason fate, announced on Selection Monday. By RPI, the Owls stand a decent chance to earn an at-large berth, but the NET Rankings have them as a fringe team, at best. Given the weighting toward NET, the Owls’ season could very well be done.

No matter what happens on Monday, it was another remarkable run for this team.

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Rice Women’s Basketball escapes Old Dominion, advances to title game

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Rice Women’s Basketball is headed back to the Conference USA Tournament Finals, escaping Old Dominion with clutch free throws down the stretch.

There wasn’t any hesitation when Nancy Mulkey won the opening tip to set up a layup from Lauren Schwartz on the Owls’ opening possession. A day removed from a first quarter deficit against FIU, Rice women’s basketball came out red hot against 6-Seed Old Dominion.

The Owls led by as many as 16 points in the first half. Only once did the lead fall back into single-digits, but when it did, Rice pushed it back to 11 within a minute. The margin was comfortable enough that center Nancy Mulkey was only on the court for 13 minutes in the first half.

Podcast: Former Rice football star Christian Covington talks football, Marvel

Mulkey made her presence felt immediately in the second half, scoring the Owls’ first eight points of the third quarter. Her and Lauren Schwartz proved to be a dynamic scoring combination. While Mulkey cleaned up underneath, Schwartz scored from just about everywhere else. She followed her career-high 27-point outburst on Thursday with 17 points and fuves rebounds on Friday night.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the Owls, though. Rice started to cool off down the stretch. In fact, they failed to score from the field in the final 4:53 of regulation. An 11-point lead dwindled down to a single point, but errant free throw shooting from the Monarchs and two sets of clutch foul shots from Haley Swayze and Mulkey iced the game.

This was one of the closest games Rice has played for in some time. As harrowing as it was, it should prove to be a valuable test with a trip to the NCAA Tournament on the line in their next game.

Head coach Tina Langley remained steadfast in her postgame comments. When asked about the Owls’ resiliency, she was quick to double-down on the compliment. “They have battled all season,” she said. “And I’m just so proud of who they are and what they continue to do.”

Rice women’s basketball is scheduled to play the winner of 1-Seed from the East, Middle Tennessee or 2-Seed from the West, UTEP at 5:00 p.m. Saturday on CSB Sports Network.

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Rice Basketball: UAB Blazers outlast Owls in C-USA quarterfinals

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Rice basketball saw their season come to an end with a quarterfinals loss to UAB in the Conference USA Tournament.

Perhaps more so than any other season Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera can remember, this past season was filled with highs and lows. Whether by injury, COVID-19 precautions or both, the Owls were very rarely at full strength.

Chris Mullins was out for a stretch during the middle of the season. Travis Evee missed time. Max Fiedler suffered a broken nose that slowed him for a stretch. Mylyjael Poteat wasn’t available this week and Cam Sheffield had to leave Thursday’s game with an injury.  But they persevered.

It was hard not to think about how far they’d come when they upset Marshall to advance to the quarterfinals of the Conference USA Tournament. Pera remembered.

“We lost 71 percent of our scoring from last year, our top five scores,” he recalled, before making a striking claim, “And we’re better.”

Read More: Rice Football spring practice notebook – Week 1

Pera didn’t mean that as a slight to those who have since moved on. But it’s hard to argue with the results. Wednesday’s upset of Marshall marked the first time was a moment Pera says he’ll cherish for a long time. But it wasn’t the only proof of growth, and that includes a season-ending quarterfinals loss to UAB on Thursday night. The loss stung because Rice had the lead with eight minutes to play. Then it disappeared.

Max Fiedler had a team-high 18 points. Quincy Olivari had 16. Rice shot 50 percent from three and 46 percent from the field. For all the good, Rice couldn’t overcome UAB’s dominant performance on the glass. The Blazers hauled in 16 offensive boards. Rice had one. In Pera’s own words, “That’s not a good stat.”

When push came to shove, UAB had more left in the tank. “Down the stretch their veterans made plays. We kind of fell flat and ran out of gas,” Pera said, noticeably choked up from his postgame conversations with the team.

Coming up short against one of the better teams in the conference won’t be how this team is remembered. There’s plenty of time to reminisce on that front. For now, Pera and his team can exhale and regroup. The loss stings, but the Owls truly believe their time is only just beginning.

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Rice Women’s Basketball 2021: Owls explode past FIU in CUSA Tourney

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Rice women’s basketball picked up where they left in Conference USA Tournament, roaring past FIU to advance to the semifinals.

What ended as another dominant conference win didn’t start that way. Rice women’s basketball found themselves trailing 23-14 at the end of the first quarter in their opening game of the Conference USA Tournament against FIU. The Panthers were fresh off a first-round win over Southern Miss and came out of the gates red-hot.

Head coach Tina Langley didn’t call a time out to settle her squad down. She didn’t hesitate to take Nancy Mulkey out of the game and cycle through the Owls’ rotation. Instead, she stuck to her guns and trusted her experienced team to figure things out.

Over the span of the next quarter and a half, Rice outscored FIU 45-14.

Read More: Rice Football spring practice notebook – Week 1

“Resiliency” was the word Langley used in the aftermath of the Owls’ fourth consecutive Conference USA Tournament win. This team doesn’t often get punched in the mouth, but when they do, they respond well. Lauren Schwartz exploded with a career-high 27-point performance. Jasmine Smith and Sydne Wiggins put on a clinic of their own, dishing out 11 of the Owls’ 26 assists, a tournament record.

Rice held FIU to seven points in the third quarter. By the time the Panthers had recovered, it was too late. After shooting 63 percent from the field in the first quarter, FIU would finish the game at a paltry 36 percent. They made 10 shots in the first quarter, but just nine shots in the second half. Once more, the Rice defense slammed the door.

Rice women’s basketball is scheduled to play Old Dominion at 5:30 p.m. Friday on Stadium. The Monarchs advanced to the quarterfinals following upsets of 3-Seed North Texas and 2-Seed Charlotte

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