The source for Rice sports news

Rice Women’s Basketball trudges past ACU in foul-fest

By

Rice women’s basketball gutted out a hard-fought road win, overcoming foul trouble to dispatch Abilene Christian and improve to 2-0.

On the road for the first time this season, Rice women’s basketball opened their trip to Abilene Christian looking composed and comfortable on both sides of the court. The Owls jumped out to an 11-3 lead, limiting the Wildcats to just one made basket across the first five minutes of action.

Rather than run away with the victory, though, the Rice defense sagged and became much more reminiscent of the unit that allowed Houston Christian to pour on some late points than the team that produced a historic first half outing in that same opening game.

ACU battled back, cutting the Rice lead to as few as two points before entering halftime trailing by three. Malia Fisher kickstarted the Owls immediately after the break, putting up back-to-back layups to spark what turned into a 16-4 Rice run and a 15-point Rice advantage. In a matter of a few minutes, a close game teetered on the verge of a blowout once again, but a comfortable game was not in the cards.

Every time Rice started to get in a groove, trouble came. That big lead dwindled to 10 by the time the third quarter had come to a close on its way to just a six-point advantage for Rice with seven minutes remaining in the game.

When push came to shove, Dominque Ennis delivered the daggers. Her pair of three pointers in the final minutes kept the Rice lead at double-digits and helped finish off the pesky Wildcats.

“Winning on the road is hard,” Rice women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “Coming into someone else’s gym and getting a road win is really, really tough. I thought our players came in here and they showed toughness and the showed togetherness.”

Final Box | Rice 69 – ACU 58

Key takeaway | Fighting through Foul Trouble

Foul trouble shaped the course of this game significantly. Emily Klaczek was limited to six minutes in the first half. Malia Fisher only played 10. Trinity Gooden, just eight and then quickly returned to the bench when she picked up her third foul early on in the third quarter.

Getting into any sort of rhythm proved challenging for the Owls, who barely were able to keep a consistent five on the court for more than a few moments. It was a grimy game with lots of contact and lots of whistles. Three Rice starters finished with four fouls. None fouled out, but all had their minutes significantly reduced.

Fair or not, the good teams find ways to win these types of games, and that’s what Rice was able to achieve on Thursday night. They’ve now won 13 consecutive non-conference games, a streak that dates back to December 2021.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball silences HCU in historic defensive performance

By

Rice women’s basketball pitched a near-perfect defensive performance in their season opener against HCU, holding the Huskies to 38 points in the win.

The crowd filling the lower bowl of Tudor Fieldhouse hadn’t even had time to exhale from their raucous cheering at the opening tip before Rice Women’s Basketball had its first lead of the 2023-2024 season. Malia Fisher won the tip, got the ball to Destiny Jackson and watched as Owls’ senior leader drained a three to put Rice in front.

Those three points by themselves would nearly be enough to preserve the Owls’ advantage in the first half. Rice held Houston Christian to a meager 6.5 percent shooting mark from the field, holding the visiting Huskies to just five first half points, a school record.

“It’s definitely something that we’ve worked really hard on,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said of her team’s defensive performance, mentioning her team’s experience in her system. “They know exactly what I want and they know what the expectations are.”

It would prove to be the start of a historic defensive performance for the Owls. Just three times in the past 10 seasons had Rice held an opponent to fewer than 40 points. The program record is 28 points, set against Prairie View A&M in 1994. To even be in that conversation is impressive.

Houston Christian entered the fourth quarter with just 17 total points. With history in reach, Rice limited HCU to just 21 more, posting a 70-38 win in their season opener.

Rice women’s basketball didn’t secure a program-best defensive performance — at least not according to the record books — but Edmonds and company will take the win, soak in the strong defensive showing and get to work on tightening up the mistakes.

“Winning is hard. The expectations are set really high for this team and we’re striving for perfection,” Edmonds said. “I feel like tonight we showed in spurts who we are, but I don’t think we played a 40-minute game of Rice women’s basketball. I think there’s definitely some areas that we can clean up and improve in, but [we’re] 1-0 to start the season and I’m proud of them for that.”

Final Box | Rice 70 – HCU 38

Key takeaway | Don’t worry about the offense

Counting the exhibition, this was just the second game this team has played together against people wearing different color jerseys. If you’re going to have some growing pains, it’s best to get them out of the way against opponents the caliber of HCU before getting to the meat of the nonconference schedule — and that is coming — but for now, Rice is happy to take the win and plenty of teaching material.

The offense was never a serious concern for this program under Edmonds, not in the slightest. Rice led Conference USA in field goal percentage last season and would have ranked second by a few percentage points to AAC-leading USF. This team can shoot. The scoring will come.

“There’s going to be nights when the shot doesn’t fall,” Edmonds said. “But the two things that we can control is our defensive intensity and our rebounding effort.”

Rice won the battle of the boards 57 to 32. The defensive performance speaks for itself.

Scoring is volatile. Defense is more absolute. Either you can defend at a high level or you can’t. Monday’s debut game against Houston Christian suggests Rice might be pretty good in that respect. The baskets will come.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

2023-2024 Rice Women’s Basketball Season Preview

By

The 2023-2024 Rice women’s basketball season is around the corner and the arrow continues to point upward for Lindsay Edmonds and her team.

Rice women’s basketball still managed to find ways to win while playing with a limited roster in head coach Lindsay Edmond’s first season on South Main in 2021-2022. Adding the conference’s top recruiting class to the mix last season propelled the Owls to an undefeated non-conference run for the first time in program history.

Faced with a new conference and elevated expectations, Edmonds is ready to see her program take the next step. “Last year was amazing,” Edmonds said during her media availability at American Conference Media Days.” But it was last year, right?”

Subscriber content.<br /> Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

Sorry! This part of content is hidden behind this box because it requires a higher contribution level ($10) at Patreon. Why not take this chance to increase your contribution?
Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Athletics AD Tommy McClelland shares goals, big dreams for Owls

By

On Tuesday morning, Rice Athletics introduced Tommy McClelland as its new Athletic Director and gave him the opportunity to share his vision for the Owls.

News broke a few weeks ago that Rice Athletics had found its new Athletic Director. The University formalized the announcement soon afterward and on Tuesday, those expectations were fulfilled with the introduction of Tommy McClelland as the Owls’ new AD.

“I’ve always admired Rice from afar. The opportunity to join the university, one of the world’s elite institutions and a university and an athletics program that is on the rise, it’s truly unbelievable,” McClelland said. “Rice athletics has enormous potential to achieve even greater success while remaining true to its core values.”

McClelland made it clear he viewed this position as a destination job. He spoke of all the potential Rice had and stirred up the passions of those in the room, asking everyone to do their part in helping the university achieve those lofty aspirations.

The Roost Podcast: Soundbites and summaries from Tommy McClelland’s presser

As for his vision for the athletic department, McClleland leaned into the unique value proposition Rice University holds. “Athletics is not the most important thing on this campus, not by a longshot,” he admitted. “But our sports programs do provide the widest lens in which people get to view the global impact that is happening all over this campus.”

McClelland closed his initial remarks with a powerful value statement, further clarifying his goals for the athletic department “to use athletics as a mechanism to become a top-rated university in education, in research and in everything we do.” adding that he believes “we can utilize the platform in athletics to help amplify the success of the university. When one area of the university wins, we all win.”

You can view the entire press conference here.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts

Rice Athletics: Tommy McClelland named Director of Athletics

By

Rice president Reginald DesRoches announced that Tommy McClelland, currently the deputy athletic director at Vanderbilt, will be the Owls’ new AD.

In a statement released by the school on Sunday, Rice Athletics has named Tommy McClelland its next athletic director.

“We’re thrilled to be able to attract someone with Tommy’s breadth of experience and success,” DesRoches said. “He brings the values of academic excellence and deep integrity that define Rice, coupled with a passionate desire to compete successfully at the highest level of intercollegiate athletics. These attributes will be critical for Rice’s first season in the American Athletic Conference and the years to follow.”

“I am incredibly grateful to President DesRoches, the search committee and the Board of Trustees for the opportunity to serve as vice president and director of athletics at Rice University,” McClelland said. “My family and I are thrilled to join the Rice family and the Houston community.”

The news was initially reported on Saturday by Pete Thamel before being announced formally by Rice today.

McClelland is slated to begin duties on August 14, two weeks from today. In the meantime, senior associate director Tanner Gardner will serve as interim athletic director for the department.

The full statement is available to read here.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

Recent Posts