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Rice Women’s Basketball rolls past TAMU-CC on the road

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Rice women’s basketball started fast and never let up, rolling past Texas A&M Corpus Christi on the road to improve to 5-3 on the season.

Before Texas A&M Corpus Christi had exhaled from the opening tip, Rice women’s basketball had a 9-0 lead. The visiting Owls wasted no time announcing their presence on the Islanders’ court, jumping out in front quickly thanks to the return of Malia Fisher and well-placed shots from Dominque Ennis and Shelby Hayes.

Staked to a near-double-digit lead, Rice expanded their cushion in the second quarter in which they shot 67 percent from the field including a trio of three-pointers. That lengthened the Owls’ advantage over the Islanders by a ten spot and sent Rice into halftime with a 56-28 advantage.

Both teams traded baskets after the break, but the result of the game was never really in doubt thanks to the Owls’ tremendous opening effort. Not only did Rice never trail in this game, they spent the majority of the second half with the game well out of reach. It was a dominant effort away from home and an extremely encouraging showing near the midway point of nonconference play.

Final Box | Rice 84 – Texas A&M Corpus Christi 56

Key takeaway | Winning away from home

The road had not been kind to Rice Women’s Basketball in this young season. The Owls sludged through a victory at Abilene Chrisitan in their first game away from Tudor Fieldhouse before dropping successive away contests, the first at TCU and the second at SFA.

This is a very similar team to the one that went undefeated in nonconference play a season ago, so the ability to win away from home is clearly there, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t clicking. Saturday’s performance against Texas A&M Corpus Christi served as a powerful reminder that the Owls still have what it takes to go into someone else’s gym and walk away with a win.

As cliched as it is, winning on the road is hard. The Owls were effective on offense, rebounded well and made their free throws. The defense was stingy, too. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but it was a respectable one and one that will be good enough to get the job done, more often than not.

Up Next: vs Gonzaga (Sat. Dec 9)

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Dominique Ennis, Rice Women’s Basketball drown TSU with threes

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Rice women’s basketball and Dominque Ennis exploded from long range, drowning Texas Southern in threes en route to a lopsided victory.

Rice women’s basketball returned home on Wednesday night in search of a bounce-back win following a disappointing road showing against SFA on Saturday. The Owls fell behind early against Texas Southern 6-2 but quickly composed themselves and fired back, tying the game a few minutes into the first quarter before amping up the intensity even further.

A 14-0 Rice run put the home team in front by double-digits. Texas Southern cut their deficit down to four in the second frame, but Destiny Jackson wasn’t going to allow it to slip any further. She scored 10 of the teams’ 12 points in the final five minutes of the half, propelling the Rice advantage back to 10 points at the half.

Texas Southern opened the third quarter with a free throw to get within nine, but that’s the closest the visitors would come for the remainder of the game. Dominque Ennis caught fire from long range and her teammates continued to get her open looks with the basketball.

Ennis’ career night helped spurt runs of 14-0, 9-0, 16-4 and 11-2. The lead ballooned past 20 midway through the third and Ennis and company just kept pouring it on. Back-to-back threes from Maya Bokunewicz put the Owls ahead by 30, ensuring a comfortable home win, the 700th victory in program history.

“It’s about us. This is an ‘us’ game. We wanted to be playing the best basketball we could be playing today,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “It wasn’t about what Texas Southern was doing or what the score was on the scoreboard.”

Final Box | Rice 74 – Texas Southern 44

What They’re Saying

“If feels good to get back in the win column. It feels good to be back at home. I thought we came out with a lot of energy and we saw a lot of energy for the majority of the game. And that’s the team that I know that we can be. That’s the team that we’re working to be every night. When we can play fast and when we can share the basketball the way we did, I think we have a really, really, really good team.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Have a day, Dom

On a night without Malia Fisher, Rice women’s basketball was going to need someone else to step up. In some ways the phrase, “step up”, is an overused sports colloquialism, a trope coaches, broadcasters and writers alike lean on to suggest the necessity for a collective effort in the face of adversity.

Seldom does the conveyor really believe that one person will truly rise up and take the burden upon themselves. But that’s exactly what Ennis did on Wednesday night.

Ennis scored a career-high 25 points, connecting on a career-best six three-pointers. Tack on five assists, five boards and four steals and you have one of the most impressive stretches of basketball anyone in this program has produced so far this season.

“I think Dom’s capable of that every night,” Edmonds said. “I feel like Dom’s had a great summer. I feel like her overall confidence in the game has grown so much since last season and so it was kind of like, waiting for it. I think she’s had very solid games this season but this was definitely the breakout game of the season and what our expectations are of what she’s capable of. Very proud of her.”

Up Next: at Texas A&M Corpus Christi (Sat. Dec 2)

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Bokunewicz’s big day powers Rice Women’s Basketball past St. Mary’s

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Rice women’s basketball overcame a slow start, catching fire in the second half behind the masterful shooting performance of Maya Bokunewicz.

It wasn’t the start Rice women’s basketball would have hoped to see on Sunday afternoon. After trading baskets early, Rice fell behind by nine points by the end of the first quarter, committing uncharacteristic penalties and making mental mistakes. Their opponent, Saint Mary’s pushed their advantage to double-digits early in the second quarter, putting the game on the brink of disaster should the Owls not settle down.

Head coach Lindsay Edmonds pulled the team aside and challenged them to focus.

“I just challenged. I challenge them to be who we are. We had not been that yet. And I was just telling them if wanted to play today, they would show up and play because at that point I  didn’t feel like they had shown up,” Edmonds said. “If we were playing blah it is not good for us. So I just challenged them to be us. And if they were ready to play, I was ready to watch them. They stepped up and they were ready to get going after that.

Not only did Rice find its rhythm, but they played some of their best basketball yet from that point onward. An 11-0 Rice run erased the Gaels’ lead entirely, with the Owls taking a brief two-point lead before heading into halftime even at 35-all.

The defense was starting to gel and the Owls were taking better care of the basketball. Maya Bokunewicz did the rest. The veteran guard connected on seven three-pointers, tying the school record and pushing the Rice lead to as many as 16 points.

When St. Mary’s tried to mount a late comeback, Rice made its free throws and Dominque Ennis delivered the dagger three in the closing seconds to put the game away. Rice moves to 3-2 with the win.

Final Box | Rice 73 – St. Mary’s 62

What They’re Saying

“We have kids that are now sophomores that were freshmen and played a lot of minutes, but there’s still ultimately very young on the basketball court. But there’s a lot of times they do not show their youth and inexperience at times today, I felt like we we showed that a little bit, but we’re still figuring it out. We don’t want to peak right now. We want to be peaking in February and March. I told them after the last game, we don’t need to hang our heads and hopefully, these adversities we’re facing now are going to bring us blessings in February and March.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Masterful Maya

This team is still learning who to lean on in big moments. A season ago, Ashlee Austin and Destiny Jackson were the spark plugs that willed this program to win. Jackson remains, but her role as a distributor is just as important as that of a scorer. She’s going to need someone else to make those clutch shots. On Sunday, that clutch someone was Maya Bokunewicz.

“Maya Buckets, that’s the opening statement,” Edmonds joked.

Bokunewicz tied a career-high with 26 points, reached in large part by the aforementioned seven triples. Even with her big day from behind the arc, Rice still only shot 38 percent from the floor. All of those makes mattered. The fact that they counted for three instead of two was a bonus.

“I kind of lost count,” Bokunewicz admitted. “I would just shoot one and it would go in… it kept happening. Like coach Edmonds said, my teammates really just found me, I was wide open and I just happened to be really on today.”

Up Next: at Stephen F. Austin (Sat. Nov 25)

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Rice Women’s Basketball loses big lead, falls to Georgia Tech

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Rice women’s basketball built a 17-point lead but could not hang on, allowing miscues to sink them late against Georiga Tech.

At least early on, the friendly confines of Tudor Fieldhouse seemed to be a welcoming backdrop for a resurgent Rice women’s basketball team that got things going quickly against Georgia Tech. Destiny Jackson delivered eight first-quarter points, propelling the Owls to an early lead, which grew to a double-digit advantage midway through the second quarter.

It looked as if the Owls would be able to put things in cruise control when their advantage reached 17 points in the early minutes of the third quarter. Instead, things started to sputter for the home team.

Georgia Tech traded blows with Rice for a while in the third quarter, but didn’t really began their comeback bid in earnest until the final minute of the frame. The Yellow Jackets finished on a 7-0 run, converting their foul shots and a key three pointer to pull within six. That deficit shrunk to one at the midpoint of the fourth quarter, putting the pressure back on Rice to find a way to finish.

Foul trouble and turnovers would prove to be the Owls’ undoing. Malia Fisher spent most of the final quarter on the bench before fouling out in the final minute. Limited minutes from Fisher late and six turnovers in the final quarter proved too much to overcome. Dominque Ennis had time to toss a pair of threes up to tie the game, but neither found home, handing Rice their second consecutive defeat.

“I’m not into moral victories,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said after the game. “I felt like that was one we let slip away.”

Final Box | Georgia Tech 78 – Rice 75

What They’re Saying

“I told the team, I reminded them, we did not schedule a cupcake non-conference and we did it on purpose. We wanted to challenge ourselves. We wanted to be battle-tested. We wanted to be put in these situations. And hopefully, these adversities that we’re dealing with now are going to bring blessings to us in March and we’ll be able to figure out how to win the games that we need, to have the toughness that we need to… Hopefully it’s going to help us in February and March, when it matters the most.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Take care of the basketball

Two stats sum up why this game ended the way it did: rebounds and turnovers. When games get close, teams that execute are the ones that tend to win. Yes, high-caliber shooting can bail anyone out on any given night, but over the long haul, it typically requires excelling in the fundamentals and doing the little things well.

Rice was outrebounded 41-34 for the game and 10-5 in the fourth quarter. Likewise, Rice committed one less turnover in the game than Georgia Tech did but gave the ball back to their opponent six times in the fourth compared to twice by the Yellow Jackets.

Up Next: vs St. Mary’s (Sun. Nov 19)

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TCU snaps Rice Women’s Basketball’s nonconference win streak

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Rice women’s basketball saw a 13-game non-conference game winning streak come to an end on Sunday in Fort Worth, falling to TCU 67-42.

Baskets were at a premium on Sunday afternoon in Fort Worth, Texas. Rice women’s basketball made its first shot to take a 2-0 lead, but didn’t string together consecutive made baskets until the opening possession of the third quarter. TCU wasn’t shooting much better. The Horned Frogs edged the Owls 36.2 percent to 25.4 percent from the field, but a high-scoring game was never in the cards.

Despite the shooting woes, Rice hung tight with TCU through the first quarter of action. Things were neck-and-neck for a while until TCU went on a 17-2 run, pushing a level game to the brink of a blowout in the matter of roughly five minutes of time on the court.

Rice was able to chip away at the deficit in the opening minutes of the third quarter. Malia Fisher got the run started with back-to-back layup, others contributed a few timely shots behind her, but things went cold once again from the field shortly thereafter. Rice did not make a field goal in the final 6:20 of the third quarter. That allowed TCU to stretch the lead from 10 to 18 entering the final frame.

Without any sort of consistent offensive production, Rice had to watch TCU pull away and seal the game. The loss snaps a streak of 13 consecutive non-conference victories for the Owls.

Final Box | TCU 67 – Rice 42

Key takeaway | Who is going to step up on offense?

Rice missed four or more consecutive shots on four separate occasions in the first half against TCU. The Horned Frogs only had one such cold stretch during that period. Come the third and fourth quarters, Rice suffered through an 0-for-10 stretch from the field.

On some days, the shots are going to fall. That’s basketball. It happens. Finding ways to manufacture easy looks and get to the free throw line becomes the necessary alternative on those afternoons. Even that sort of Plan B never materialized from the Owls on Sunday.

The slow day on the offense exposed one lingering question for this team, which boasts as talented and as deep of a roster as they’ve had under head coach Lindsay Edmonds thus far: do they have a dominant scorer?

Edmonds’ teams have tended toward balanced production. No single player has carried the load on offense, it’s been a collective effort. In general, the approach makes a lot of sense and it’s worked for this program. But on days like today, Rice women’s basketball needs someone to take command and will the offense to score.

Nobody rose to the occasion against TCU. Will someone take up that mantle on the next tough day from the field? Rice is going to have more hard shooting days. They need to figure out a solution.

Up Next: vs Georgia Tech (Thr. Nov 16)

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