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Rice Basketball 2021: Owls battle back for split with UTEP

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Rice basketball split a hard-fought two-game set with UTEP, earning their most impressive road win of the season in the process.

It was a wild weekend in the desert for Rice basketball. The Owls were welcomed to El Paso by a garage of three-pointers in their opening game of the two-game set. UTEP hit five triples in the first five minutes of game one, screaming out to a 21-9 lead.

The Owls showed poise and maturity with their response. They battled back to take the lead, erasing a 12-point deficit in a matter of minutes with only one three-pointer to hastened the rally. The dogfight would continue into the second half before another Miners’ surge put things away.

UTEP came out hot again on Saturday, but this time the Rice comeback found staying power. Monster days from Travis Evee (21 points with five three-pointers) and Max Fiedler (19 points and 13 rebounds) propelled the Owls to victory.

More: Rice Women’s Basketball sweeps UTEP at home

Head coach Scott Pera was noticeably amped in the aftermath on Saturday. “That is a terrific basketball team that we just beat on their home floor,” he said, taking responsibility for gameplan decisions on Friday and lauding his team for responding well in the rematch.

The win gives Rice a split on the road, something head coach Scott Pera mentioned his team was aiming to achieve any time they left the confines of Tudor Fieldhouse this season. It was a physical, hard-fought victory, and one that Pera called a “statement” for the steadily rising Owls.

Player Spotlight | Max Fiedler

Fiedler began the season with three straight double-doubles, a strong start for the second year player. That would prove to be just the beginning for Fiedler who has been red hot from the field in the past five outings. Starting with a Dec. 21 game against New Orleans, here are Fiedler’s last five lines:

  • New Orleans: 2-for-2, 7 points, 12 rebonds
  • UTSA: 5-for-6, 12 points, 11 rebounds
  • UTSA: 8-for-8, 18 points, 4 rebounds
  • UTEP: 10-for-11, 22 points, 5 rebounds
  • UTEP: 9-for-15, 19 points, 13 rebounds

Altogether, that’s 34-for-42 from the field (81 percent) and an average of 15.6 points and nine rebounds per game. Rice lacked an interior presence this commanding last season. Not only have Fiedler filled that void, he’s turned into an impact player for the Owls on both sides of the court.

Stat Corner | Dependable from deep

Rice basketball shoots a lot of threes, that’s nothing new, but their accuracy from downtown has been noticeably better. Rice made 30 percent or fewer of its three point shots in 13 of 32 games last season, a rate of 41 percent. The Owls have turned that statistic upside down this year, failing to reach a 30 percent success rate from three just once in 12 games.

The Owls made 11 of 25 threes on Friday (44 percent) and eight of 17 threes on Saturday (47 percent). If you’re going to live by the three, you’d best be good at it. And Rice is one of the best teams in Conference USA from three.

Up Next

Rice returns home next weekend to face Conference USA East-leading Old Dominion. The Monarchs, like the Owls, are the only three-win team in their division. ODU split with FIU in their opening series before sweeping Florida Atlantic this past weekend.

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Rice Women’s Basketball 2021: Owls out-tough UTEP, move to 4-0

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Rice women’s basketball stayed perfect in conference play, sweeping their second weekend series with two hard-fought wins over UTEP.

It’s been hard for visiting teams to win at Tudor Fieldhouse. The Rice women’s basketball hasn’t dropped a conference game at home in nearly three years. The Owls have been tested, just as they were this past weekend, but they’ve always found a way to come out on top.

Rice opened their first couplet of home conference games on Friday, outlasting surges from the Miners with strong defense and opportunistic shooting. Lauren Schwartz led the team with 16 points including three triples. Nancy Mulkey contributed five rebounds and 15 points. Nine different players scored.

More: Rice Basketball earns hard-fought split with UTEP in the desert

Saturday was another tightly contested contest. Stingy defense on both sides led to just 39 combined points in the first half. Had it not been for the clock expiring on a last-second three, Rice could have found themselves trailing at the break for the first time this season. Instead, the Owls took a narrow two-point lead into halftime.

Their trademark lockdown third quarter was once more a difference maker. Rice outscored UTEP 15-7, stretching the lead to 10 points. That gave the Owls plenty of breathing room to secure a 4-0 start in conference play. UTEP was held to 43 points on 27.1% shooting.

After giving up 68 points on Friday, the defense responded with tenacity. “I still think we can continue to get better [in rebounding],” head coach Tina Langley said after the series, “but I like our toughness and our ability to stick to a philosophy that I feel works really well for our team.”

Player Spotlight | Sydne Wiggins

Wiggins has been one of the most reliable and versatile players on the court for the Owls over the past three seasons. The senior guard scores, rebounds and finds outlets for her teammates. Her aggressiveness against the UTEP zone gave Rice crucial opportunities when the offense was slow out of the gate. On defense, she stuck to her opponents like glue.

On Friday, Wiggins set up her teammates for success, tallying five assists to her seven points and seven rebounds. Saturday it was her turn, leading the team with 15 points. The ability to do both well, to facilitate and to score, makes her an invaluable asset to the team and someone Langley called “a very dangerous player” for the Owls on the court.

Stat Corner | Gallegos ghosts

The Rice defense was superb once again this weekend, but their work on UTEP’s star guard was particularly impressive. Katia Gallegos came into the weekend averaging 17.4 points per game. She led UTEP in scoring, assists, steals and was second in rebounds. She’d been held under 10 points once in her first seven games, scoring 20+ three times.

Rice held Gallegos to nine points on 3-for-15 from the field on Friday. Then they followed it up by limiting her to nine points on 4-of-9 shooting in the first three quarters on Saturday. She scored eight points in the fourth quarter, but that came after the Owls had secured a double-digit lead. Too little, too late.

For the weekend she shot 31.0 percent from the field compared to her typical 46.3 percent, roughly 50 percent worse than her average outing.

Up Next

Rice hits the road next weekend for what could be their toughest test yet in conference play. They’ll play a Friday/Saturday set against Old Dominion, who along with the Owls, were one of three teams to receive first place votes in the Conference USA preseason polls. The Monarchs swept Florida Atlantic on the road this weekend after dropping both games of their opening series at home to FIU.

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Rice Basketball 2021 Game Previews: Owls vs UTEP

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Rice basketball stayed perfect in Conference USA play last weekend. Both the men and the women look to build on 2-0 starts against UTEP.

Rice Basketball

Time: Jan. 8 at 8:00 p.m. CT and Jan. 9 at 8:00 p.m.
Venue: Don Haskins Center
Radio: Stretch Internet Portal
TV: Jan. 8 – CUSAtv | Jan. 9 – ESPN+

UTEP 5-3 (1-1), Last 5 (3-2)

  • 61-69 (L) at Arizona
  • 76-63 (W) at Arizona State
  • 79-59 (W) vs Benedectine
  • 66-74 OT (L) at Southern Miss
  • 77-62 (W) at Southern Miss

UTEP statistical leaders

  • Scoring | Souley Boum – 19.4 per game
  • Rebounds | Bryson Williams – 8.1 per game
  • Assists | Jamal Bieniemy – 5.6 per game
  • Steals | Souley Boum – 1.9 per game
  • Blocks | Tydus Verhoeven – 0.8 per game

Rice 8-2 (2-0), Last 5 (4-1)

  • 61-72 (L) vs New Mexico
  • 90-79 (W) vs Houston Baptist
  • 73-62 (W) vs New Orleans
  • 95-86 (W) vs UTSA
  • 84-69 (W) vs UTSA

Rice statistical leaders

  • Scoring | Quincy Olivari – 18.0 per game
  • Rebounds | Max Fiedler – 9.5 per game
  • Assists | Max Fiedler – 4.0 per game
  • Steals | Travis Evee – 1.4 per game
  • Blocks | Max Fiedler – 0.8 per game

Rice keys to victory

UTEP’s win over Arizona State is one of the best wins from a Conference USA program this season, but the Miners did not impress this past weekend against Southern Miss. The talent looks to be there for this squad, but the consistency is not. Which UTEP team will Rice face this weekend? That could make a significant difference in the result.

For Rice, they’ll have to do a better job defending Souley Boum. In three games against the Owls last year Boum scored 27, 16 and 25 points respectively. If he has a big game, Rice is going to have to match him, at the very least.

Rice Women's Basketball

Time: Jan. 8 at 1:00 p.m. CT and Jan. 9 at 1:00 p.m.
Venue: Tudor Fieldhouse
Radio: Stretch Internet Portal
TV: Jan. 8 – CUSAtv / Jan. 9 – Not televised

UTEP 5-2 (2-0), Last 5 (3-2)

  • 81-73 OT (W) at New Mexico State
  • 65-68 (L) at Utah State
  • 75-83 (L) at Northern Arizona
  • 83-65 (W) vs Southern Miss
  • 74-72 (W) vs Southern Miss

UTEP statistical leaders

  • Scoring | Katia Gallegos – 17.4 per game
  • Rebounds | Michelle Pruitt – 5.7 per game
  • Assists | Katia Gallegos – 5.0 per game
  • Steals | Katia Gallegos – 2.3 per game
  • Blocks | DejaNae Roebuck – 0.7 per game

Rice 6-1 (2-0), Last 5 (4-1)

  • 81-62 (W) at Texas Tech
  • 83-51 (W) vs Louisiana
  • 53-57 (L) at No. 10 Texas A&M
  • 78-53 (W) at UTSA
  • 69-57 (W) at UTSA

Rice statistical leaders

  • Scoring | Nancy Mulkey – 15.7 per game
  • Rebounds | Nancy Mulkey – 6.4 per game
  • Assists | Sydne Wiggins and Jasmine Smith – 4.1 per game
  • Steals | Jasmine Smith – 1.7 per game
  • Blocks | Nancy Mulkey – 2.4 per game

Rice keys to victory

UTEP isn’t one of the big powers in women’s C-USA hoops, but they’re not going to roll over either. Led by preseason All C-USA guard Katia Gallegos, UTEP is going to look to shoot at a sturdy clip against a solid Rice defensive unit.

Ultimately, it could come down to Nancy Mulkey and company’s ability to keep Gallegos contained. If she’s not able to produce, it’s going to be hard for the Miners’ secondary and tertiary options to make these games competitive.

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Rice Basketball: 2020-2021 Midseason State of the Program

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Rice basketball started 2021 on the right foot with back-to-back wins. Where do the Owls stand as they enter the heart of Conference USA play?

There was no doubt the 2020-2021 season was going to be unique for Rice basketball. The non-conference slate was truncated and comprised entirely of teams who were either willing to come to South Main or a short bus ride away from campus. That included lower-level schools like Our Lady of the Lake and LeTourneau.

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The Owls were expected to take care of business in the nonconference slate. For the most part, they did. Rice entered Conference USA action in January 6-2, their best record (by winning percentage) prior to conference play in head coach Scott Pera’s tenure. Then they started conference play a perfect 2-0 for the first time in 14 years.

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Rice Women’s Basketball 2021: Owls fly past UTSA with ease, twice

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Rice women’s basketball continued their winning ways in Conference USA play, beating UTSA twice in two days on the road.

For the fourth consecutive season, Rice women’s basketball opened conference play 2-0. This year, both of the Owls’ victories came against the same team in the same venue. As a part of Conference USA’s efforts to reduce travel, Rice opened their conference slate with back-to-back road games against UTSA.

Rice announced the arrival in San Antonio with authority, jumping out to a 16-3 lead in the opening quarter of the Friday affair. UTSA would hang around into the before a near-perfect third quarter shooting performance from the Owls, who made 10-of-13 shots to push their lead to 20 points. Lauren Schwartz and Nancy Mulkey led the team in scoring with 19 points apiece.

More: Men’s Basketball goes 2-0 against UTSA 

UTSA managed more than three points in the opening frame during the rematch on Saturday, but the result was the same. Rice held the roadrunner to 32.9 percent shooting and never let the Roadrunners get within striking distance after the Owls took the early lead. Sydne Wiggins had a season-high 14 points, but it was Mulkey, again, who led the team in scoring with 20 points.

Rice has now won 36 of their last 38 games against Conference USA opponents. Tina Langley’s squad has adapted as they’ve gone, developing complementary pieces to keep the Owls consistently ahead of their conference foes.

Player Spotlight | Katelyn Crosthwait

Crosthwait is making the most of her insertion into the starting lineup this season. She scored 20 points across the two games against UTSA, also contributing six assists and a pair of steals. She’s continued to develop as a shot maker and consistently provides the Owls another option on that side of the court. Crosthwait was third on the team in minutes played on the weekend.

Stat Corner | Shooters shoot and stoppers stop

Rice is No. 1 in Conference USA in field goal percentage, connecting on a staggering 50% of their shots through seven games. The Owls are also No. 1 on the defensive side, limiting their opponents to 31.6 percent shooting from the field.

Old Dominion is the only other team in the conference to rank in the top half of both metrics. The Monarchs rank fourth in shooting percentage and sixth in shooting defensive percentage.

The Owls have always hung their hat on suffocating defense. Adding an explosive offense that takes (and makes) high percentage shots will make this team hard to beat in conference play.

Up Next

Rice women’s basketball will open their home slate of Conference USA games next weekend against UTEP. Once again, it will be another Friday/Saturday double feature. The Miners are 5-2 this season. Like the Owls, they also swept their opening C-USA series. UTEP took both games against Southern Miss by final scores of 83-65 and 74-72, respectively.

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