The source for Rice sports news

Rice Basketball surges past Southern Miss on the road

By

Rice basketball showed great composure, weathering a second-half cold snap to secure a comfortable win at Southern Miss.

A pair of three-point baskets from Southern Miss signaled the beginning of a shotgun start in their Saturday tilt with Rice basketball. Both programs shot well early on with Rice carving out a modest six-point halftime lead thanks in part to a blistering 64 percent field goal percentage in the first half that dwarfed a respectable 40 percent showing from the floor by Southern Miss.

The offenses would cool off in the second half, but the margin would grow. The streaky Owls endured a 1-for-10 cold snap in the middle of the half but somehow were able to fend off the Golden Eagles who endured an equally frustrating 3-for-10 stretch over the same span. With neither offense moving, defenses and free throws took over.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball goes cold from three in loss to LA Tech

The win ensures Rice basketball their fourth consecutive Conference USA weekend with no worse than a split in their Thursday/Saturday contest. The Owls sit at 5-4 in conference play with a set of four consecutive home games on the horizon.

Player Spotlight | Max Fiedler

The rise of Mylyjael Poteat has led to a couple of quiet weeks from Rice center Max Fiedler. Coming into this game, he hadn’t played more than 25 minutes since Nov. 30 against Texas State and he hadn’t reached double-digit points since Rice played Jarvis Christian on Dec. 4.

Fiedler surpassed both marks on Saturday, scoring 14 points in 33 minutes, adding 10 rebounds. It was his fifth double-double of the season. It might be no coincidence the Owls are 5-0 in those games.

Stat Corner | Multi-dimensional offense

Rice basketball produced their most anemic three-point shooting performance on the season on Thursday against Louisiana Tech. The Owls were unable to overcome a lagging showing from beyond the arc in part because they didn’t complement it with a particularly dangerous offense from inside the arc. They flipped that script on Saturday.

The Owls shot a mediocre 33.3 percent from three-point land, but were 52.9 percent overall from the floor and scored 32 points in the paint. Being able to still find success shooting the basketball on slower nights from the team as a whole will be crucial going forward. As for the deep shooters, Carl Pierre and Quincy Olivari both shot .500 from three. That’ll be good enough on most nights.

Final Box | Rice 76 – Southern Miss 62

Up Next | Full Schedule

Following this brief two-game road trip, Rice basketball heads back to Tudor Fieldhouse for a four-game homestand beginning next Thursday night against UTSA. Then they’ll play UTEP on Saturday, Feb. 5 before finishing the stretch with North American on Tuesday, Feb. 8 and North Texas on Saturday, Feb. 12.

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

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball holds on against LA Tech for first C-USA win

By

Rice women’s basketball dug deep and found a way to win at home, holding on down the stretch to top Louisiana Tech for the Owls’ first C-USA win.

Seeking their first Conference USA win of head coach Lindsay Edmon’s tenure, Rice women’s basketball showed no signs of weariness following last week’s four-overtime loss at Charlotte. Even with their short bench, the time off looked to give the Owls enough time to capture their collective breath, rest and attack their next opponent with intensity, giving Louisiana Tech all they could handle for 40 minutes and walking away victorious.

“I’m just so happy for this team,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “We went through a lot. We’ve had adversity with injuries, with COVID, with low numbers. And with the four-overtime game this past weekend we could have easily came in here feeling ‘Woe is me, we’re 0-5’ and just not performed the way that we did. I am just so proud of their effort. I am so proud of them coming in tonight and competing the way they did and being rewarded for their efforts.”

As they’ve proven accustomed to in recent weeks, Rice started fast, making three of their first five shots on their way to an 11-4 lead. Louisiana Tech would battle back, tying the game up at 16 apiece by the time the first quarter ended. Things stayed close for the early portions of the second period until the Owls ripped off a 16-4 run. They’d double up the Lady Techster’s in the second quarter 24-12 on their way to a 12-point halftime advantage.

Last Time Out: Rice Women’s Basketball comes up short in 4OT battle at Charlotte

Staked to a double-digit lead, Rice women’s basketball was now tasked with doing something they’d yet to do this year: close out a conference win. Both teams traded buckets in the third quarter, splitting points 18-18. Neither team hit more than two shots from the floor before the other answered. That brought both teams to the fourth quarter and Rice 10 minutes away from an important milestone.

Edmonds relayed this message to the team in those final minutes: “Basketball is a game of runs. There’s always going to be runs. You’re hoping that your the team that makes the most runs. I think LA Tech made a little bit of a run there and we needed to get stops,” she said. “That was basically what my message was: get stops.”

Things would get higher than Rice would have hoped for, but for every run, the Owls had a stop and an answer.  Louisiana Tech was able to get the game within four points before Malia Fisher hit a layup and Ashlee Austin drained a pair of free throws and a jumper to quell the rally. Louisiana Tech would get back within five in the final minute but Rice hit was sturdy enough from the charity stripe and was able to seal the win.

The milestone did not go noticed. “This team has been through a lot. We’ve faced a lot of adversity,” guard Ashlee Austin said after the game. “We really bounced back. Today we played as a team.”

Player Spotlight | Ashlee Austin

Austin led all players in scoring despite playing just 27 minutes, the fewest of any of the Owls’ five starters. Although she admitted to feeling the effects of the extended outing against Charlotte, she showed no signs of wear against Louisiana Tech. When the team needed to dig deep, she was there. She scored 27 points, added five rebounds had one assist and four blocks.

Stat Corner | Get to the stripe

Rice women’s basketball was far from perfect from the free throw line on Thursday night, but their aggressive to get themselves the extra shots paid off in a big way. Rice attempted 30 free throws to Louisiana Tech’s 16. The Owls would make 22 of those, providing them just enough of a cushion down the stretch to secure their first C-USA win of the season.

Final Box | Rice 72 – LA Tech 64

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball has one more home game left on the schedule this weekend before making their first three-game road trip of the season next week. They’ll start at UTSA on Thursday before venturing to UTEP for a Saturday contest. The Owls close the trip out with a game at North Texas the following Thursday.

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

Recent Posts

Rice Basketball sputters from deep, drops road tilt at Louisiana Tech

By

Rice basketball couldn’t find their stroke from deep, dropping a road contest to Louisiana Tech in one-sided fashion.

Rice basketball knew they’d be in for a tough one when they hit the road for Ruston, Louisiana on Thursday night. Although Louisiana Tech had fallen to UAB the weekend prior and lost their status as the conference’s lone unbeaten team, the Bulldogs were still one of the best teams the Owls had on the schedule this season. It was going to be a challenge.

Halfway through the first half, Rice looked to be up to the task. The Owls led by as many as five points and never trailed in the first nine minutes of regulation. Then Rice, leading 20-18, missed nine of 10 shots and watched as a close game turned extremely perilous in the span of a few trips down the court.

Last Time Out: Rice Basketball slips at home, falls to Charlotte

The two-man tandem of Kenneth Lofton and Cobe Williams proved lethal in this game. Both mean reached double-digit scoring in the first half, helping Louisiana Tech stretch a small lead to a 15-point halftime advantage. Rice was able to claw away part of the deficit in the second half, relying heavily on Mylyjael Poteat in the post. His inside presence proved stabilizing for most of the second half before Louisiana Tech regained their shooting stroke.

After Rice cut the deficit to single digits, Louisiana Tech rattled off a 10-0 run, their second such double-digit streak of the evening. Rice did a lot of things well, but those two spurts proved too much for the team to overcome on an off shooting night on the road where the Owls made just 32.8 percent of their field goals compared to Louisiana Tech’s much better 48.5 percent from the floor.

Player Spotlight | Quincy Olivari

Olivari’s season started slow, in large part because of a wrist injury that hampered his shooting stroke. His contributions on offense were limited as he worked to get back to full strength. He’d had a few strong showings, highlighted by a 27-point outburst against Houston Baptist. His 18 points and 10 rebounds marked his most productive contest since then and his first career double-double.

Stat Corner | Off the mark

Rice basketball has come a long way from its live-by-the-three, die-by-the-three reality in recent seasons. The defense has improved and the team has found a reliable inside presence in Poteat whom they can turn to when the outside shots aren’t falling. They won’t shoot the lights out of the gym every night, but they’re going to have to at least find some level of success to win games like this.

Thursday was a bad night from three, marring what could have been a much closer contest. Rice made 4-of-26 three-point shots, an abysmal 15 percent. The Owls are 1-6 this season when making less than 33 percent of their triples. They’re 10-2 in all other games. Some of those included white-hot outside shooting performances, but many of them didn’t. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it can’t be 15 percent.

Final Box | LA Tech 80 – Rice 63

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball completes its current two-game road trip on Saturday in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss. From there they’ll head home for a three-game homestand featuring games against UTSA (Thursday, Feb 3), UTEP (Saturday, Feb 5) and North Texas (Saturday, Feb 12).

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

Recent Posts

Rice Football Recruiting 2022: Recapping a busy Junior Day

By

More than a dozen potential members of the 2022 Rice Football recruiting class were on campus this weekend. Here are a few names to know.

The vast majority of the 2021 Rice Football recruiting class has put pen to paper and made their pledges to the Owls permanent, predominantly during the Early Signing Period. There are a few names left to formalize, but there’s enough nailed down to allow the Rice staff to turn one eye toward the future and host their first Junior Day of the year.

In this update, we’ll hit on which recruits were on campus, which received offers and share a few comments from some of the Owls’ newest targets.

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. Recruiting updates like this are reserved for our subscribers. Get access to all practice notes, special features and more 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 Football 2021: NFL Owls Divisional Round update

By

Rice Football is well represented on 2021 NFL rosters. Here’s the latest from the NFL Owls in action in the Divisional Round.

There are former Rice football players scattered across the NFL. Stay tuned each week for their game results and notables from each player.

Divisional Round Schedule

Game NFL Owl(s) Result
Cincinattiat at Tennessee Coaches James Casey, Justin Hill Bengals win 19-16
San Francisco at Green Bay  — 49ers win 13-10
LA Rams at Tampa Bay Nick Leverett (OL) Rams win 30-27
Buffalo at Kansas City  — Cheifs win 42-36 (OT)

Divisional Round Schedule

Game NFL Owl(s) Date / Time
Cincinattiat at Kansas City Coaches James Casey, Justin Hill Sun. Jan. 30 at 2:05 pm
San Francisco at LA Rams  — Sun. Jan. 30 at 5:40 pm

NFL Owls Update

Nick Leverett– OL, Bucs

For the third time this season, Leverett was called into emergency action following injuries to players in front of him on the depth chart. He played nine snaps for the Bucs primarily during their first scoring drive of the second half which set up what was nearly a thrilling 24-point comeback had it not been for a Rams field goal as the clock ran down.

The broadcast was quite complimentary of Leverett’s play:

Coaches James Casey and Justin Hill

Casey and Hill have plenty to smile about after watching Joe Burrow and the Bengals reach the AFC Championship Game. This is Casey’s second season with the Bengals and Hill’s first

Offseason Owls

With the 2021 season coming to an end several Owls have recently become free agents. Calvin Anderson is a restricted free agent. Bryce Callahan, Christin Covington and Andrew Sendejo have become unrestricted free agents.

More Owls in the NFL

From practice squads to current free agents, there are other Owls on the cusp of returning to active rosters. Find more detail on current contractual agreements and former Rice football players waiting for their next opportunity here.

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

Recent Posts