The source for Rice sports news

Rice Women’s Basketball falls short at LSU in NCAA Tournament

By

Rice Women’s Basketball pushed LSU to the wire, dropping a hard-fought game to the defending champs in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.

A sea of frustrated purple and gold clan onlookers bemoaned a season-low first quarter point total for the defending national champion LSU Tigers following a physical battle with Rice Women’s basketball in the opening stanza of their NCAA Tournament game. The Owls held the Tigers to 12 points, and while they only managed six themselves, it was evident from the start they were going to give LSU all they had.

“Once we got over that first punch that they threw, we absolutely hung with them,” Malia Fisher said. “I think it was just about playing our brand of basketball and hitting shots early to spread their defense out and then being aggressive, and like I said, not being scared and taking it to them.”

Even when LSU went on a 10-2 run, Rice never looked rattled. The Owls weathered the storm, staying vigilant on defense and got key shots in key moments, many of them coming from the long range of Emily Klaczek whose final three of the first half silenced a full house at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rogue.

More: Potential head coach candidates for Rice men’s basketball

Despite being heavy underdogs, Rice never looked rattled. In the waning moments of the third quarter an 11-2 run put LSU up by 11, their largest lead of the game. Malia Fisher spent most of that time on the bench, struggling with foul trouble, yet the Owls battled back with Destiny Jackson leading the charge and Hailey Adams knocking down some big free throws along the way.

“I can’t hear myself think,” Fisher joked afterward, noting how the environment wasn’t too much for this team. Even with the noise, Rice pushed back.

That 11-point deficit dwindled as the fourth quarter progressed. Sussy Ngulefac’s layup with 1:56 got Rice within six points. The Owls wouldn’t get any closer than that, watching the clock wind down after a hard-fought battle against a battled-tested LSU team.

Final Box | LSU 70 – Rice 60

What They’re Saying

“I’m incredibly proud to be their coach. We came in here and we wanted to have the exact same mindset that we had in the conference tournament and that was to come in and play our best brand of basketball and to not quit and to not give up and be relentless… I’m incredibly proud. We came in here. We fought for four quarters. We won two of those quarters against the defending national champion. I thought we did a lot of great things, but the main thing that I’m proud of is that we never for one second quit or looked like we didn’t believe that we belonged in this game. Very, very proud. I don’t know if I can say that enough.”” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Poise under pressure

Strip away the seeds and the fanfare. If you handed a copy of this game to someone who didn’t know LSU was the defending national champions and Rice women’s basketball had only earned their ticket to play in the dance a week ago, Friday’s result wouldn’t have given many clues.

LSU turned the ball over 24 times. They shot 42 percent from the field and never led by more than 11 points, despite being nearly a 30-point favorite by most oddsmakers.

Rice won on the margins. They got to loose balls and never let effort be the differentiator between success and failure. For 40 minutes, it looked like the Owls wanted it more than the Tigers. In the end, LSU’s edge in athleticism and height — they outrebounded Rice 42-29 — proved decisive. But not once did it ever seem as if the Owls would go down without a fight.

“We were not afraid of the moment and we were ready to play. We proved that we were here and we were not going to just be somebody that they were going to be able to run over or walk all over,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “And that was because of their unwavering belief in one another and their unwavering confidence in our gameplan and what we were trying to get accomplished today.”

The 2023-2024 Rice women’s basketball season comes to an end in Baton Rouge, but the showing was about as impressive as it could have been in a loss. The unflappable Owls will be back. They’re already charting a course for another trip to the dance next year.

“We talked about it in the locker room. Remember this feeling. Remember what it felt like to get here but next year we want to go further,” Edmonds said. “Everything matters. We’ve already started talking about that. And I think everybody’s going to be hungry.”

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

Recent Posts

14-Seed Rice Women’s Basketball to face LSU in 2024 NCAA Tournament

By

Rice Women’s Basketball has earned a 14-Seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament and will open up against 3-Seed LSU in Baton Rouge.

For the first time since 2019, Rice Women’s Basketball is going dancing. The Owls clinched an automatic berth in the 2024 NCAA Tournament when they cut down the nets this week in Forth Worth, TX, winning the American Conference Championship. They found out their postseason destination on Selection Sunday:

Rice will be the No. 14 Seed in the Albany 2 Region where they’ll face 3-Seed LSU in the first round. Should the Owls pull off the upset and advance beyond that, they’ll play the winner of 6-Seed Louisville and 11-Seed MTSU.

Rice and LSU will tip off Friday at 3:00 pm. The game will be televised on ESPN

This is the Owls’ fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament in program history and head coach Lindsay Edmonds has become the only Rice women’s basketball head coach to reach the tournament in their first three seasons with the school.

The Owls’ first appearance as a program came in 2000 when the 13-Seed Owls upset 4-Seed UC Santa Barbara in the first round. They then advanced to the second round and fell to 5-Seed North Carolina. Their second trip came in 2005 as an 11-Seed where they fell to 6-Seed Georgia in the first round.

Erica Ogwumike and Nancy Mulkey headlined the most recent Rice Women’s Basketball team to go dancing. That squad was a 12-Seed, pitted against 5-Seed Marquette in the first round. That team dropped a close overtime contest and was denied another chance at the tournament when the 2020 postseason was canceled with the outbreak of COVID-19.

The complete bracket is available here.

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

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball routs ECU, wins AAC Championship

By

Rice Women’s Basketball is headed to the NCAA Tournament, routing East Carolina to win the Owls’ first-ever American Conference Championship.

Any concerns that Rice women’s basketball would be out of gas as they walked onto the court for their fourth game in as many games dwindled in a matter of minutes as the Owls executed a defensive masterclass. They held ECU to 1-of-12 (8.3 percent) shooting in the opening quarter, setting the tone for one of their most dominant performances of the season.

“We put our foot down,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds, exclaimed. “I mean, seriously. We wanted this. We talked about how our opponent was going to be hungry, we needed to be starving. We were starving to get this win.”

The score was 18-3 in favor of the blue and grey by the end of the first. ECU didn’t reach double digits until halfway through the second frame. It was then that Emily Klaczek congratulated the Pirates with a three, her third of the game, to lift the Owls back to a 17-point advantage. Maya Bokunewicz drilled another at the buzzer to make sure Rice went into halftime up by that same margin.

More: Takeaways from first week Rice Football spring practice 

The Pirates engineered an 8-1 run just after halftime to get back within 14. Klaczek responded with another three, the Owls’ eighth of the game, silencing the threat and keeping Rice in firm command.

ECU’s last gasp came in the fourth quarter, trimming the Rice lead to nine as the Owls managed just one field foal in the first six minutes. Malia Fisher, who had been limited with foul trouble, ended the Pirates’ prayers with a crucial three, putting Rice back in front by double-digits. ECU wouldn’t get any closer for the remainder of the game.

Sussy Ngulefac led Rice with 15 points and her first career double-double with the Owls. Klaczek had 14. Fisher had 13. Destiny Jackson had 10. When it mattered most, the Owls’ stars took charge and willed them to the NCAA Tournament.

“It’s pretty surreal. It’s amazing,” Edmonds said. “I don’t even know if it’s completely all sunk in yet, but we’re going dancing. And there’s more to come for Rice women’s basketball this season.”

Final Box | Rice 61 – ECU 41

What They’re Saying

“We always break the season into three different seasons — non-conference, conference and then tournament play — When we started tournament season, we started breaking down huddles with our left hand because it was closest to our hearts and I just feel like we played with so much heart. We played with so much toughness. We played with so much togetherness. It was it was really special. We hung our hats on defense. We shared the basketball.

I just can’t get over how close this group is on and off the floor and that’s what makes us be so special. Malia [Fisher] said that we might have been a 10 seed on paper but we never believed that we were. So that’s why we we had something to prove and we did it for four straight days, which is really really hard to do, but they were relentless and they knew that they wanted it and they weren’t going to do let anybody take that from them.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Defense, it is

The last time Rice women’s basketball played in the NCAA Tournament was following the 2018-2019 season. That team, coached by Tina Langley and featuring Erica Ogwumike and Nancy Mulkey, was as defensively-minded of a basketball team as there has been in quite some time. They held opponents to a staggering 52.9 points per game.

When Lindsay Edmonds took the helm in 2021, the tempo ticked upward and the shots started flying. The Owls have been an offense-first team ever since, or at least, that was the case right up until a few weeks ago when injuries and late-season shooting struggles forced this team to adapt.

“It starts with our mentality and our mindset. We’ve just been saying one more stop, one more rebound,” Edmonds said. “It was just a mentality. I feel like everybody bought into it. Everyone locked into that. It was tremendous. It was everything we needed it to be.”

This team allowed 64.1 points per game in the regular season. In four AAC Tournament games, Rice had held their opponents in 53.3 points per game, fractional points off the torrid pace set by that 2018-2019 squad. When you account for the painstakingly slow tempo of Langley’s squads, it’s remarkable just how stout this current iteration of the Rice defense has become.

If you want to win in March, you have to be elite at something. As improbable as it might have been a few weeks ago, this team is going to hang its hat on defense. It just might work.

Up Next: NCAA Tournament

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

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball tops Temple, advances to AAC Title Game

By

Rice Women’s Basketball got pivotal plays from its leaders in crunch time to knock off Temple and advance to the AAC Championship Game.

Two of the better defensive teams in the American Conference slugged it out in the semi-finals on Tuesday night as Rice Women’s basketball took on Temple with a trip to the conference championship game on the line. The all-Owl affair featured lots of physicality and intensity with points at a premium.

The squads combined for 18 fouls in the first half, with two starters apiece charged with multiple fouls before halftime. Even with the interruptions, the teams shot the ball fairly well. Malia Fisher and Sussy Ngulefac took charge for Rice, scoring 20 of the team’s 33 first-half points as Rice sought to pound the interior and force Temple into defensive mismatches.

More: Takeaways from first week Rice Football spring practice 

A modest four-point halftime lead ballooned to as many as 13 in the third quarter as Ngulefac, Destiny Jackson and Emily Klaczek sparked an 11-0 run to take command of the game, but the edge would be fleeting.

Temple battled back, whittling the lead down to single digits before taking the lead with 3:29 remaining in regulation. It was then, with the season hanging in the balance, that Rice got three near-perfect performances from three of its most important leaders.

Klaczek followed a Fisher layup with a massive corner three to put Rice back in front by three. Destiny Jackson won on an iso play the following possession, keeping the lead at four. Then, with Temple inbounding as Rice nursed a two-point lead, Fisher stepped in front of the pass and effectively ended the game.

“I’m long and lanky,” Fisher said of that pivotal play, a play that effectively sent Rice to the American Athletic Conference Championship Game.

“That’s why they’re in the game, late game. I trust them. I count on them. They know what it’s like. I said it yesterday,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “They’re tough. They’re competitors. I trust them. When the game is on the line, I know they’re going to do what it takes to make sure Rice comes out on top.”

Final Box | Rice 61 – North Texas 59

What They’re Saying

“We’ve been on a little bit of a revenge tour here, since we’ve been here. UAB got us at their place. We lost at home to North Texas and Temple. So we had a little bit more fuel to our fire behind all of the games that we were facing to make sure that we came out on top and we came out on top at the right time.

Toughness has really prevailed. Our togetherness has really shown. We have hung our hats on defense. I’m just really, really proud of the efforts. We could hung her heads a couple of times tonight but we found a way to get one more, to get one more rebound, to come out on the winning end. Really, really proud of the group.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Don’t Settle

During Rice women’s basketball’s five-game losing streak to end the regular season, the Owls shot 20.2 percent from three including a 3-for-30 outing against North Texas. Head coach Lindsay Edmonds saw those results and made a change, keeping Sussy Ngulefac in the starting lineup for each game of the conference tournament and making a concerted effort to attack the rim.

“We were just talking about not settling for threes and talking about being aggressive, putting pressure on them, putting pressure on the paint, putting pressure on officials to make calls for us,” Edmonds said. “I really liked how they executed to start the game.”

Ngulefac, whose only start before this week came in the regular season finale against UTSA, was named player of the game for her efforts, finishing with 11 points and five rebounds with two blocks.

The Owls’ focus on going inside would eventually open up opportunities to make an extra pass and set up open looks from three. Klaczek’s huge triple in the final minute was made possible because of pressure inside that opened up the shot.

Rice women’s basketball has found a recipe that works. If they want to win one more game and punch their ticket to the NCAA Tournament, they need to stay aggressive, attack the basket and keep winning on defense. If they can, they’re going dancing.

Up Next: vs ECU on Wednesday in the AAC Title Game, March 13 at 6:00 pm

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

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball edges North Texas to reach AAC Tourney Semi-Finals

By

It took a full 40 minutes, but Rice Women’s Basketball came out on top, holding on to a one-point lead in the final minute to take down North Texas.

The intensity was palpable on the floor of Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas on Monday night as 10-Seed Rice Women’s Basketball battled with 2-Seed North Texas with a trip to the American Athletic Conference Semi-Finals on the line. Emotions were high as the ball raced up and down the court with the Owls dictating the game in the early goings, albeit barely.

Rice led after the first quarter. They led at halftime. They led after three. None of those leads were by more than three points. In fact, through three quarters, there were just 30 seconds of the game to that point in which either team had led by more than two scores. When it comes to close games, it’s hard to envision much tighter than this.

Emily Klaczek, whose 13 points were second on the Owls’ in scoring to only Destiny Jackson, delivered a trio of big three-point shots in clutch moments, helping Rice keep pace in the second half.

“You never want it to be as close as it was, but to some degree, it’s kind of fun sometimes when it’s down to the wire,” Klaczek said. “I really got a lot of belief in our team and when it’s a close game like that, I would take us any day.”

More: Takeaways from first week Rice Football spring practice 

That unity was put on display in the final three minutes. Rice would make one field goal during that stretch as North Texas turned a six-point Rice lead into a one-point Mean Green advantage. Rice players were tired, admitting as much after the game, but they resolved to keep pushing and find a way to win.

“I was also impressed by our team too, lifting them up, giving them energy,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “When they were coming to the bench there was like so much energy fed into them. Timeouts were really locked in, really focused. I think that also helped them, being able to push through, because they knew their teammates 100 percent had their backs.”

Destiny Jackson hit the eventual game-winner with 41 seconds to play, but it would take several more stops amidst turnovers and miscues before Rice women’s basketball was able to exhale. And even then, North Texas’ last shot, a long three, dipped halfway into the cylinder before rattling out. Rice needed that one last stop. They got it.

“I think the last two years with us, we’ve always kind of hung our hats on offense,” Edmonds said. “But this year, when we’ve been really good, it’s been us hanging our hats on defense.” On Monday night, that defense held the highest-scoring team in the AAC, North Texas, to just 59 points, almost 16 points below their average night. As a result, Rice is moving on.

Final Box | Rice 61 – North Texas 59

What They’re Saying

“I think we have the want to. We talked about it yesterday, putting our foot down and getting one more stop. Putting our foot down and getting one more rebound and one more rebound and not letting anything affect us or anything stop us for being able to do that.

Mindset. Mentality. Focus. I think we’ve had it for 40 minutes for the last two games. Really, really proud of their grittiness down the stretch to be able to get those stops.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Battle Tested

In a game in which Rice women’s basketball led for 31 minutes, there wasn’t ever really a moment where the Owls could exhale. No lead was safe enough, no possession long enough, to afford either side to come up for air. The in-game win probabilities oscillated wildly back and forth as neither side ever took a commanding lead.

Rice has been in several close games in the past month, but it’s been a while since they’ve endured a 40-minute slug fest like this and come out on top. When it comes to finding ways to win in March, experiences like this matter. The Owls have been through this fire. Their reward? At least one more chance.

“We’ve talked a lot about adversities that we’ve faced this season and how it was going to bring us March blessings,” Edmonds said. Here we are. We got to keep doing it. Tomorrow’s the next day and we’ve got to keep fighting.”

Up Next: vs Temple/Tulane on Tuesday, March 12 at 8:00 pm

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

Recent Posts