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Rice Basketball: Mixed nonconference play shows modest improvement

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It’s been an up and down start to the Rice basketball season. Moe on the good, the bad and the path forward for the Owls this season.

Rice basketball has secured a winning record in nonconference play for the first time in the Scott Pera era. In Pera’s first year, the Owls were 3-10 prior to C-USA action. Last season they improved to 5-8. At the end of 2019, Rice is 8-5 with conference play set to start on Thursday.

The emergence of Trey Murphy has been an important development for this team. He missed the Bahamas Showcase with an injury suffered during the Houston game but has since returned to form. He leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.8 points per game.

Ako Adams is keeping a clean handle on the ball and distributing well, opening up opportunities for guys like Robert Martin and Drew Peterson, who’s on pace to have the best season of his young career.

Freshman Max Fiedler, Zach Crisler and Quincy Olivari have become core pieces of the rotation. Fielder is third on the team with 51 rebounds and Crisler is shooting a cool .529 from the field.

Room for improvement

It hasn’t been all roses. In fact, it’s been more of a roller coaster than expected. A 4-1 start and a 2-for-3 showing in the Island of Bahamas Showcase were the high points. A narrow loss to Houston at home and a gutpunch defeat to Sam Houston in the nonconference finale were the low points.

Discipline remains a noticeable sticking point with this team. It’s hard to wrap your head around how a Rice team that made quick work of a good Penn team could flounder against Lamar and also erase a 22-point deficit to knock off UC Santa Barbara on the road. The best of Rice can hang with an elite Houston team. The worst was blown out by Arkansas by 48 points.

The team is still young, and their collective experience has produced positive moments. If they can pull together enough of those, they should be able to take another step forward as conference play begins.

The path forward

Five of the Owls’ first seven conference games are away from home. They’ll tip off against Marshall on Thursday, January 2 and make the short trip to Western Kentucky on Saturday, January 4. Then they return home for games against Florida Atlantic (Jan. 9) and FIU (Jan. 11)

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Top 10 moments from Rice Athletics in 2019

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2019 was an incredible year for Rice Athletics. It’s hard to boil down the success into a single list, but here are some of the most impactful moments of the year.

10. Baseball run-rules TCU at Shriner’s College Classic

Baseball’s first season under Matt Bragga was filled with ups and downs. The absolute shellacking the Owls’ laid on TCU at Minute Maid Park stands out as a high point. A perennial Omaha-bound squad, TCU looked stunned when the Rice exploded for nine runs in the final two innings. Cade Edwards blasted a dagger into the Crawford Boxes, ending the game in seven innings.

9. Football signs 17 in early signing period

The Owls haven’t had a top-five class in Conference USA since 2013, but are well on their way with the first installments of the 2020 Rice Football recruiting class. Rice entered the early signing period in the top four classes in the conference and has a few more weeks to add to the total. Dynamic athletes like Sean Fresch, Andrew Mason, Plae Wyatt and Mike Leone are going to help raise the floor, and the ceiling, for this program.

8.  Soccer goes 6-3-1 in C-USA play

The first year under a new head coach is filled with uncertainty, but Rice soccer and Brian Lee had a tremendous 2019 season. Rice won 10 games for the fifth time in six years and lost just one conference game, a feat the program achieved only one other time this decade.

7. Blaze Alldredge named first-team All-Conference USA

From junior college to the top of Conference USA, Blaze Alldredge’s story is incredible. He was the leader of a Rice defense that went from one of the conference’s worst to one of its’ best and is expected to return Alldredge and the majority of its key contributors in 2020. Neither Alldredge or this defense will fly under the radar next year.

6. Anthony Rendon wins World Series

In a moment bittersweet for native Houstonians, former Rice baseball great Anthony Rendon won the World Series in his hometown. The Washington Nationals’ third baseman had eight hits in the series, including a pair of game-changing home runs. He celebrated by signing a 7-year, $245 million contract with the Los Angels Angels during the offseason.

5. Women’s basketball makes NCAA Tournament

Rice Women’s basketball looked every bit the part in their first NCAA Tournament appearance of the decade. The Owls pushed Marquette to the wire, faltering late. The duo of Erica Ogwumike and Nancy Mulkey gave opponents nightmares and both are back for another shot in 2020.

4. Volleyball upsets No. 3 Texas

Rice volleyball delivered their biggest win in program history in front of a record crowd at Tudor Fieldhouse. It took five all five sets, but the home team delivered an upset for the ages, downing then-No. 3 Texas before celebrations broke out all over the arena. It’s hard to find an individual win more impressive than this one across all of Rice Athletics in 2019.

3. Women’s Basketball and Volleyball ranked for the first time ever

The upswing in Rice Athletics could be encapsulated in the first-time rankings of the women’s basketball and volleyball programs. Both teams had stellar seasons that warranted national attention. Not only did they both receive those honors, but they changed the perception of Rice on the national stage. Rice is no longer just any other school, it’s an elite institution with high-caliber athletes that can win big.

2. Football closes with three straight wins

There were rumblings of improvement, but an 0-9 start had Rice football in a tough spot. They knew they needed to start winning — and they’d come close several times — but getting over the hump proved to be a tougher task than expected. Once Rice got the taste of victory, they didn’t look back. The football team closed the year with three straight wins, the first time Rice has ended the year that well since 2013 when they won the conference title.

1. Women’s Basketball goes undefeated C-USA

No matter the sport or the conference, going undefeated is really hard to do. Rice women’s basketball did just that, blowing out the majority of their conference opponents in dazzling fashion on their way to a conference championship. Including the conference tournament, the Owls went a perfect 19-0 against Conference opponents.

Honorable Mentions…

How about you? Which of these moments did you enjoy the most? Which events should be added to the list?

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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 19 – 2019 North Texas Review, UTEP Preview

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Rice Football earned their second straight win, upsetting North Texas at home in Week 13. Carter and Matthew break down the win and preview UTEP.

A win on Senior Day made for positive vibes and an upbeat locker room this week. Rice football has their first winning streak under Mike Bloomgren and has their eyes on fulfilling the 3-0 challenged handed to them by former NFL coach Rex Ryan when visited the team during the previous bye week. More on how the team go to this point and reasons to believe these recent changes could bring sustained success.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, Give a listen to Episode 19 below.


Episode 19 Notes

  • Rice Athletics updates —  Rice Basketball had a whirlwind of a week. The men took two of three in the Bahamas Showcase with their only loss coming to the tournament champion Liberty Flames. The women dropped their second road contest of the season falling in lopsided fashion to Oklahoma State before rebounding against McNeese State on Wednesday. Volleyball dropped a heartbreaker to WKU.
  • North Texas Review — Rice has won back-to-back games despite not scoring any points after halftime. Carter and Matthew discuss the big picture offensive adjustments, the play of true freshman walk-on center Isaac Klarkowski, and the stunning defensive performance of Treshawn Chamberlain and the secondary against one of the best quarterbacks in Conference USA history.
  • UTEP Preview — For the second time this season, Rice football enters a game as a favorite. The Owls won’t let their momentum catch them off guard. Instead, the focus this week is sustained production on offense and containing the dual-threat abilities of UTEP quarterback Kai Locksley.

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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Rice Basketball: Hot start not enough as Owls fall to Houston

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The blue and white-clad Rice basketball squad started red-hot, only to be cooled down by Quentin Grimes and the resilient Houston Cougars.

The crowd was roaring from start to finish at Tudor Fieldhouse on Tuesday night. A fairly even mix of red and blue was hardly ever silent as cross-town rivals Rice basketball and Houston battled it out on the hardwood in front of them.

The home team that came out swinging. Two foul shots from Trey Murphy got things started. He quickly followed those with a pair of three-point bombs to give Rice an 8-0 lead. The Cougars found their success on the boards early, but their rebounding edge only had a marginal impact as Rice kept making shot after shot, after shot… after shot.

Houston cut the Rice lead to two midway through the first half before Rice went on a 13-0 run behind two long three-pointers from Robert Martin. The Cougars battled back, but a Trey Murphy dunk to close out the half gave Rice a 39-32 lead at the break.

More: Rice Women’s Basketball drops close one to No. 5 Texas A&M – Recap

The second half was a slugfest. Houston quickly equalized as the teams traded haymakers for the remainder of the contest. When Houston scored, Rice always found an answer. Robert Martin continued on from a strong first half with Drew Peterson surging with several timely shots.

The two sides traded single-digit advantages until the Cougars’ Quentin Grimes caught fire. The Kansas transfer hit four three-pointers in the final six minutes of regulation, turning a close game into an 11-point Houston lead in the final minute. The Owls did the best they could to extend the game with free throws, but Houston prevailed 97-89.

“There’s no moral victories right now in this program anymore,” head coach Scott Pera said following the game. “I thought we played winning basketball for about 34 minutes… we expected to win and we came up short.”

Player of the Game – Drew Peterson

The balance that Rice basketball has exhibited on the court since their opening night loss has been pristine. The usual suspects — Trey Murphy, Robert Martin and Ako Adams — have had big games, but, by and large, the team has worked together as a unit with stunning precision. They’re passing the ball well, finding the open man and making their shots.

Tonight’s game ball, though, goes to Drew Peterson. When Houston made their run in the second half, it was Peterson that fended them off. He was 4-for-4 from three in the second half, finishing the game with 16 points, 5 rebounds and 3 assists.

“I think we win that game more times than not,” Peterson said. Houston had the last word tonight, but the Owls were able to prove to the city, and themselves, they’re here to stay. “This loss shows us more about who we can be,” Robert Martin said. “I think we’re just starting to believe.”

Up Next

This was the last home game Rice basketball will play in the next four weeks. The Owls’ next set of contests start on Friday, Nov. 22 in the Island of the Bahamas Showcase. They’ll start things off with Milwaukee on Friday at 1:00 p.m., play either Liberty or Morgan State on Saturday. Sunday’s game is TBD.

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Rice Women’s Basketball: Owls drop heavyweight fight vs No. 5 Texas A&M

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Rice Women’s Basketball took No. 5 Texas A&M down to the wire, falling a single point short in front of a packed crowd at Tudor Fieldhouse on Sunday.

There was no trepidation in the Owls’ eyes when No. 5 Texas A&M took the court at Tudor Fieldhouse on Sunday. Rice Women’s Basketball had missed the chance for revenge against these same Aggies last March, falling in overtime to Marquette in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, hosted in College Station.

The Aggies scored first before Rice punched back behind a pair of baskets from Sydne Wiggins. An 8-5 lead wasn’t overly significant in the grand scheme of this 40-minute contest, but it calmed this team down and reminded them that they could play with this team, and play at this level.

More: Takeaways from Rice football’s win over MTSU

Led by Chennedy Carter, Texas A&M grabbed a 10 point lead and held the Owls at bay through the first half. Rice did most of their scoring from the free-throw line, unable to crack the rigid Aggie defense. Ferocious defense, led by Jasmine Smith kept Rice in the game. The sophomore guard came up big, drawing a charge in the final seconds before halftime prior to a Haylee Swayze three.

Trailing 36-27 at half, Rice began to pick up the pace. The defense was suffocating and the offense took advantage of their opportunities. Rice outscored their opponent 24-13 in the third quarter, clinging to a 53-49 lead at the start of the final frame.

What transpired next felt like a battle of heavyweights. It didn’t feel like C-USA vs SEC. It felt like two elite powers grappling for a resume-boosting win. Rice took a one-point lead on a layup by Erica Ogwumike in the final 24 seconds. A Texas A&M three-pointer hit iron and rattled out, but it would be the Aggies who secured the rebound and the game-winning putback.

Erica Ogwumike and Nancy Mulkey combined for 17 points. A few days removed from setting the school single-game record for blocks, Mulkey had just three swats against the Aggies. With their biggest stars held somewhat in check, the rest of the team stepped up.

Tina Langely wasn’t surprised. “Every player right now is learning that when your number is called you just have to be aggressive,” she said, crediting players the collective effort of the team who fought to the very end.

Player of the game

The loss of sharpshooter Nicole Iademarco from last year’s team left a hole in the Owls’ offensive scheme. Someone was going to have to step up and make those threes to open things up for the rest of the team’s versatile scoring options. When Rice Women’s Basketball took the court for the first time this season, freshman Lauren Schwartz was among the starting five.

Schwartz had 11 points in her first collegiate game against Nicholls St. That was a good start. But when the lights were brightest — like they were Sunday against the No. 5 team in the nation — Schwartz caught fire. She had 12 points in the third quarter alone, making two three-pointers, two more from the field and two foul shots.

“It’s not really all about me. It’s all about the team,” Schwartz said. “I couldn’t have got those open shots without the team passing the ball and making plays.” Those open shots led to a career-high 19 points and gave Rice a chance in the final moments. Three games into her collegiate career, Schwartz is shaping up to be an impactful addition to the Owls’ already potent lineup.

Up Next

The Owls will hit the road next week for a two-game stretch away from Tudor Fieldhouse. They play at Oklahoma State on Saturday, Nov. 24 at 2:00 p.m. before a Wednesday battle at McNeese St on Nov. 27. That latter is scheduled to be a 12:00 p.m. tip.

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