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2025 AAC Women’s Basketball Tournament Preview

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The 2025 AAC Women’s Basketball Tournament is slated to tip off in DFW this week. Here’s a preview of the action.

The Favorite: UTSA

Sitting at 26-3 overall and a staggering 17-1 in conference play, UTSA hasn’t lost a game since January and their only loss in the state of Texas, where the 2025 AAC Tournament will be played, came in their opening game at Texas A&M. With no guarantees the Roadrunners will receive an at-large bid, this team should be plenty motivated to finish what they started and a tournament championship to their regular season title.

The Contenders: North Texas, South Florida

South Florida has been to the NCAA Tournament three times in the last four years and was the only AAC squad to beat UTSA in the regular season. As for North Texas, the Mean Green tied their own program record this season with 23 victories. Either might be a front runner in a typical season and each is perfectly capable of taking home the title this year.

The Dark Horse: Tulsa

Winners of the regular season championship a year ago, Tulsa finished fifth in the standings this time around but is playing their best basketball right now. The Golden Hurricane have won their last five games, including a victory over South Florida at home. If there’s a good bet outside of the upper tier of the standings, Tulsa is the pick.

The Wild Card: Rice

It was only a season ago that 10-Seed Rice ripped off four straight victories in this tournament to punch a their ticket to the Big Dance. This year’s squad has faced similar regular season struggles, but retains the core pieces like Malia Fisher, Dominque Ennis and Sussy Ngulefac who made last season’s run possible. Can lightning strike twice?

The Bracket

The opening play-in game will take place on Saturday, March 8, with first full day of action set for Sunday, March 9. Here is the slate for the first two days. The full schedule is available on the conference website. All early-round games can be streamed on ESPN+, with the championship on ESPNU.

First Round | Saturday, March 8 (Super Pit in Denton, TX)

Game 1: No. 13 Florida Atlantic vs. No. 12 Charlotte – 12 p.m. CT

Second Round | Sunday, March 9 (Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, TX)

Game 2: No. 9 Rice vs. No. 8 UAB – 12 p.m. CT
Game 3: Game 1 winner vs. No. 5 Tulsa – 2 p.m. CT
Game 4: No. 10 Memphis vs. No. 7 East Carolina – 6 p.m. CT
Game 5: No. 11 Wichita State vs. No. 6 Tulane – 8 p.m. CT

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Rice Baseball thumped by Houston

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Rice baseball dropped the first game of the Silver Glove Series against Houston, sleepwalking through the Cougars’ offensive assault.

Fans had barely had time to wolf down their dollar hot dogs before the game was effectively ended on Wednesday night. Rice baseball came out flat in the first game of the Silver Glove Series against Houston, allowing four runs in the first, three in the second and five more in the third, falling into a 12-0 deficit before they came to bat in the third inning.

Read More: Rice Baseball winless at Astros College Classic

Nolan Roycraft got the start and couldn’t make it out of the first. Reed Gallant was next up and wore eight runs before being lifted for Jackson Blank, who pitched 2.2 scoreless innings. By then, the damage was done.

Between Blank and Von Baker, Rice held Houston off the board in the next three innings. Colin Robson got Rice on the board with an RBI groundout in the sixth but that was all the Owls could manage in another run-rule defeat. Houston scored six in the seventh to put the game away for good, winning by a final score of 18-1 in seven innings.

Generally, it’s hard to put too much stock in a midweek game, especially considering the randomness associated with college baseball and the various permutations of lineups and pitching staffs, but getting run-ruled in your own ballpark by your biggest rival is going to sting for some time. This was not the way Rice baseball envisioned beginning its 2025 season.

What it means | Midweek mess

Rice baseball did win its first midweek game of the season, defeating Sam Houston 6-1, primarily on the arm of Tucker Alch who twirled a gem to pick up the Owls’ first win of the season. When Alch isn’t at his absolute best, who is Rice supposed to turn to get outs during the midweek?

More: 2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

Lamar scored 11. Houston had topped that number before the end of the third inning. Rice has a total of three additional games still to come against that pair of teams. Fortunately, no midweek matchups with in-state power conference teams like Texas or Baylor are on the docket, but this pitching staff just doesn’t seem to have the depth to face any caliber of D1 opponent this weekend.

That puts pressure onto the starting rotation to get more length during the weekend to preserve the rest of the arms on staff and amplifies the impact needed from the bats, which have been promising at times, but erratic from game to game.

ON DECK | vs Yale (Fri-Sun), TAMU-CC (Mon)

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Rice Baseball defeated by Lamar

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Rice baseball overcame an early deficit but couldn’t keep up with the Lamar bats, falling to the Cardinals on Tuesday night at Reckling Park.

The situation looked dire on Tuesday night when Rice baseball found itself in a 4-0 hole against the visiting Lamar Cardinals as starter Tucker Alch labored through the early innings. The bats would come to his rescue, getting all four runs back in the bottom of the second and putting Rice in front with a two-spot in the fourth.

By the time Alch left the contest, he was in line for the win. Expectations had to be measured, though, as Alch handed the ball off to Garrett Stratton in the top of the fifth with two on and none out, clinging to a one-run advantage.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball winless at Astros College Classic

Not only did that advantage go up in smoke, but the Owls’ lead would never materialize again. After jumping in front by two, Lamar would score the last seven runs of the game, battering a beleaguered Rice bullpen and sending the Owls to a fifth consecutive loss

What it means | Youth Movement

The lineup has continued to skew younger and younger as the Owls’ season has progressed and that youth movement doesn’t seem to be going away. In just his second game in the leadoff spot, Hiram Bocachica went 3-for-6 with 2 RBI. Fellow freshman Michael Zito and Cole Green each scored two runs with Zito adding a three-hit game, too.

Although he’s not a freshman, Tobias Motley became the only Rice player this season to leave the yard multiple times, getting the Owls on the board with a solo shot in the second inning. Fellow sophomore Landon West walked twice. Blaine Brown got into the action later on, picking up a pair of hits, one of them a double.

More: 2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

In a season full of more bad news than Rice baseball fans would have hoped, the younger players have been the bright spot. Watching them develop and progress has the potential to be one of the defining throughlines of the season.

ON DECK | vs Houston (Wed), vs Yale (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Women’s Basketball drops home finale to North Texas

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Rice Women’s Basketball rallied from a large deficit in the first half but couldn’t replicate the feat in the second half, falling to North Texas at home.

Rice women’s basketball may not have had a worse first quarter against a conference opponent this season than they experienced on Tuesday night against North Texas. The Owls were outscored 14-0 before they got on the board, barely clawing back to a 10-point deficit before the end of the frame.

The second quarter was an entirely different story. Rice came out the aggressor, scoring 15 of the first 18 points to take a two-point lead over the Mean Green and make this game interesting once more. North Texas would counterpunch, ending the half on a 9-0 run to take a seven-point lead into the break.

More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Defense

North Texas would hold serve in the second half, keeping Rice women’s basketball at arm’s length and answering every volley with one of their own. Rice made consecutive field goals just once in the third quarter before unraveling in earnest in the fourth.

After a layup from Sussy Ngulefac opened the scoring, North Texas outscored Rice 10-2 in the next four minutes, turning a comfortable lead into a one-sided advantage with haste. Rice women’s basketball falls to 14-16 on the season and 7-11 in conference play.

Final Box | North Texas 68, Rice 56

Key takeaway | Can Lightning Strike Twice?

If things hold, Rice women’s basketball should be the No. 8 seed in the American Conference Tournament this weekend, a far cry from where this squad expected to be. However, this program proved a season ago that an up-and-down regular season could be pushed aside in March in favor of an electric run to a tournament championship.

Rice didn’t want to bank on another miracle to reach a second consecutive NCAA Tournament, but that’s what the Owls will need to reach those lofty goals. For better or worse, it’s a series of one-game seasons from this point onward with an eye on the horizon looking for another bolt of inspiration.

Up Next: AAC Tournament

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Rice Baseball winless at Astros Foundation College Classic

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Rice Baseball went winless at the Astros Foundation College Classic, dropping three one-sided affairs to some of the nation’s top teams.

FRIDAY | Mississippi State 14, Rice 3

Staff ace Davion Hickson opened the weekend with great stuff but inconsistent command. Walks and a balk set up a pair of two-out RBI singles in the second and third innings, respectively, which put Mississippi State in front 3-0.

Last Time Out: Rice Baseball falters late against Arizona

Hiram Bocachica got Rice back in the game with a screaming two-run shot into the Crawford Boxes before Mississippi State got another run off Hickson, driving him from the game in the fifth inning, putting the pressure on the bullpen to go the rest of the way. Garrett Stratton worked out of that jam but was less fortunate in the sixth, giving up two runs on four hits.

The Bulldogs would take a 6-3 lead into the seventh, in front but not yet out of sight. That would change quickly with a pair of home runs of Maddox Keo and another off Jack Ben-Shoshan, the latter of which ended the game via run-rule.

SATURDAY | Tennessee 13, Rice 3

Rice baseball opted to use Blaine Brown as an opener in the Saturday game but the freshman struggled mightily against the Vols’ vaunted lineup. He recorded one out, walking four and leaving the Owls in a three-run deficit when he was lifted in favor of JD McCracken.

That Rice got one run back in the bottom of the inning by way of a wild pitch would prove to be little solace thanks to a four-run outburst from the Volunteers in the second inning.

Trailing 7-1 after two, the Owls managed just enough offensively down the stretch to avoid another run-rule decision, scoring two in the seventh on RBI from Austin Eppley and Graiden West to keep the margin within 10 until their final at bat in the ninth.

SUNDAY | Texas A&M 14, Rice 4

Things got off to an encouraging start for Rice baseball in the tournament finale. Barrett Eldridge put the Owls in front with a two-run double in the first inning before Cole Green tacked on a solo shot to the Crawford boxes in the second. Rice was up 3-0 and feeling good but the Aggies wouldn’t be put down that easily.

More: 2025 Rice Baseball Season Preview

Texas A&M tied the game in the fourth on the second of five home runs they’d go on to hit that evening. The onslaught commenced in earnest in the fifth. The Aggies scored three in the fifth and six in the sixth before pushing two more across in the seventh to enact the run-rule. After falling behind by three, Texas A&M scored 14 unanswered runs, going on to win by 10.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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