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

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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.

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Rice Football 2023: UTSA Game Week Practice Report

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Rice football visits UTSA this weekend seeking to snap a losing streak. Here’s what we learned from the Owls at practice this week.

It’s mid-November and we’ve got a situation in the Rice football quarterback room. An unwanted, annual tradition has returned to South Main as the Owls prepare for the possibility of a game without quarterback JT Daniels at the helm.

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This week’s roundup focuses on what the Owls plan to do if Daniels is ruled out, what additional adjustments they’re having to make because of injuries and some closing thoughts on the importance of this matchup.

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The Plan at Quarterback

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Rice Basketball cruises past St. Thomas in opener

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Rice basketball took care of business in their season opener, cruising past St. Thomas to improve to 1-0 in their inaugural campaign as AAC members.

As it has for the past several years, the 2023-2024 Rice Basketball season began with Max Fiedler at midcourt going up for the ball before distributing it to his teammates. Fiedler won the tip, dished it to Anthony Seldon who hit a jumper to give Rice an early lead. The problem, however, was that it did not last long.

Initially ahead 4-0, Rice allowed seven unanswered points from St. Thomas to fall behind before the first media timeout. Whether it was rust or nerves, it didn’t last long.

“It was good to get their attention a little bit, right? This is an older group. Max [Fiedler] and Travis [Evee] aren’t going to panic,” Pera said of that brief deficit. “Adversity is going to be a good thing for us.”

From then on, the rout was on. Rice took care of the basketball, committing zero turnovers in the first half and just five total turnovers in the game. Combine that with a 52.8 percent shooting performance from the floor and 14 made threes made for easy work of their intra-city foe.

“Really fun to get out there and play one that counts,” head coach Scott Pera said.

Max Fiedler finished with a double-double, notching 16 points and 11 boards. That’s come to be expected at this point. Seeing a strong debut from the likes of Sam Alajiki (who went a perfect 5-for-5 from three) and Noah Shelby (14 points) was a nice bonus.

Final Box | Rice 101 – St. Thomas 57

What They’re Saying

“I come into every game the same way. I’m trying to guard first and rebound and then whatever comes on the offensive end comes. When the ball got to me early, I made a few shots. It kept flowing and I felt good about it, so I just kept shooting the ball.” – Sam Alajiki

Key takeaway | Depth will be key

Absent a near-historic defensive performance like the Rice women’s basketball team was able to display on Monday night, there was never going to be too much to draw on from this game against St. Thomas. The bigger, more physical and more talented Owls handled their visitors with relative ease, as would have been expected in a matchup like this. More games are coming to test the defense.

No, the most compelling storyline from Tuesday night’s victory was the depth Rice was able to put onto the court and when they used it. Emptying the benches late in the second half of a runaway game doesn’t take much guts. Pera didn’t wait for the curtain call, though, he rotated through 10 players in the first half alone, giving non-trivial minutes to bench assets he intends to rely on more heavily this season.

“We had stretched of playing really good and I think what you saw, you saw the depth tonight. I thought Alem and Sam really sparked us in the first half and blew the game open,” Pera said.

Everyone that was healthy played. 13 different players scored. Seven non-starters played at least seven minutes. It was everything you could have hoped to see from a bench in a season opener. Rice is going to need these guys as the season progresses. They showed out well.

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Rice Football 2023: UTSA presser quotes and depth chart

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Rice football visits UTSA this week. Here’s what Mike Bloomgren had to say about the matchup at hand and a few depth chart notes.

Head coach Mike Bloomgren and a set of players met with the media for their customary weekly availability. They recapped the SMU game and looked ahead at their upcoming matchup with UTSA.

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We touch on those items, then dig into the Rice football depth chart and what the team looks like heading into the weekend. First, the quotes:

Press Conference Quotes

“There was the holding call that was crtiical. There were a couple fouls on defense that kept drives alive and that were after the whistle type plays that are just things that we have to clean up if we want to be a championship level football team. When the margins are so small, you gotta have the discipline to not have the self inflicted wounds.”– Mike Bloomgren on what the team learned from the SMU game

“I thought our win against Houston was phenomenal. I thought that was a great step. Now, how do we do it in our conference against the top teams in our conference? We played three [great teams] in a row. How do we find a way to make that play in the fourth quarter? Because we’re pushing teams to deep water. We’re doing things, we’ve never been able to do and certainly wouldn’t be able to do in the past but they starting quarterback going down. ” – Mike Bloomgren on the growth of the team

“They play a three-four defense that’s going to build a wall. And they make everything incredibly hard to run the ball and then they play it top down with their cover four behind it. When you do that, it hard for an offense. Now their offense, they’re going to be that downhill run team and they’re going to take some shots. They’re going to line up and have Frank [Harris] just make plays. ” – Mike Bloomgren on on UTSA

“The biggest thing for me is just that chemistry. I feel like chemistry is a big thing between quarterbacks and receivers and I feel like I got that pretty early with Chase [Jenkins] and AJ [Padgett is from my area, so we were throwing in the summer when we weren’t up here. So we definitely got some chemistry in that, and just having guys who can throw the ball back there, like they can, it’s just great. It’s great to have. ” – Wide receiver Landon Ransom on his relationship with the Rice quarterbacks

“I can’t tell you how many conversations Daveon [Hook] and I have had about — ‘When we’re seniors, when we’re playing, this is how we’re going to do it.’ It’s really cool to be on the field with Daveon and Plae [Wyatt], Plae’s a character too. Getting to be on the field with him and his energy, it’s awesome, especially just thinking back to a year ago when me and Daveon were on scout team just doing our best to wreck havoc for the offensive guys. Now being able to do it in an actual game, it’s really a blessing and I feel really lucky to be able to be on the field with them.” – Safety Tyson Flowers on the comradery in the secondary 

Depth Chart

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Depth Chart Notes

The offensive depth chart doesn’t look any different this week, with a very important caveat. The status of JT Daniels for this game is not certain, “doubtful” in Bloomgren’s own words. Make sure you read our Thursday practice report, reserved for subscribers, for the latest on the Rice football quarterback situation heading into the UTSA game.

As for the defense, the depth chart does have a few changes, most notably the removal of Chris Conti after he suffered an injury prior to last Saturday’s game against SMU. Taking his place at the starting linebacker spot is DJ Arkansas, who had already been being utilized in a few packages over the past few weeks.

Demone Green has supplanted Van Heitmann as the primary backup to Coleman Coco and Jsoh Pearcy remains listed atop the other side. We’ll have more updates on his status later in the week as well. Ditto for the free safety spot, where Gabe Taylor has been given an OR designation to reflect his questionable availability.

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Rice Football Recruiting Update: Adding on to 2024

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There’s been a lot of action on the Rice football recruiting front in recent weeks. Here’s the latest on the Owls’ new additions.

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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.

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