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Rice Women’s Basketball: Owls cruise past Little Rock

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Rice Women’s Basketball cruised past Little Rock, an NCAA Tournament team last season, behind a big day from senior guard Erica Ogwumike.

Little Rock and Rice Women’s Basketball are no strangers to each other. The two teams have met on the hardwood in now three consecutive seasons, with Rice completing the three-year, three-game sweep on Saturday. The win improved the Owls’ record to 2-0 this season.

The Rice defense was suffocating for much of this contest, allowing 10 points in the first quarter and nine points in the second. Little Rock managed 31 percent shooting from the floor in the first half. That defensive performance, combined with a 10-17 start from inside the three-point line, helped propel the Owls to a 36-19 halftime lead. They never looked back, winning by a final score of 66-40.

More: 2019-2020 Rice Women’s Basketball season preview

The big lead afforded Rice another opportunity to give their incoming freshmen extended action. All 14 players saw action again on Saturday including another strong shooting day from Lauren Schwartz, who finished with eight points and three rebounds.

“I’m really excited about the way we’re coming together,” head coach Tina Langley said following the win. “I think there’s a lot of new faces on the floor, a lot of pieces to try to figure out how they fit together and I like the way we’re communicating.”

Player of the Game

Like Rice, Little Rock won their conference tournament a season ago, punching their ticket to the NCAA Tournament. Although this was a battle of two March-tested teams, the Owls proved their mettle early, extending an early lead behind the incredible play of senior guard Erica Ogwumike.

For Ogwumike, it didn’t matter that center Nancy Mulkey picked up some early fouls and only played 20 minutes. A deep bench, already heavily utilized in the Owls’ season opener, was more than enough support for an outstanding showing on both ends of the court.

The big game was a reinforcement of the improvement coach Langley has seen Ogwumike make during the offseason. “The neat thing about Erica [Ogwumike] is that she plays as a playmaker. She can create for her teammates or she can progressively find ways to score,” Langely said. “She’s an elite-level scorer and sees the floor really well.”

On Saturday, Ogwumike scored the last eight points of the first half, turning a nine-point Rice advantage into a 17-point lead at halftime. She kept piling in on in the second half, finishing with a game and season-high 23 points and nine rebounds.

Up Next

The next time Rice Women’s Basketball takes the court, it will be in Dallas for their first road game of the season. The Owls visit SMU on Wednesday, Nov. 13 for a 7:00 p.m. tipoff. Last year the Owls defeated the Mustangs 66-52.

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Rice Football Recruiting: Owls keep pushing on 2020 and 2021 classes 🔒

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We’re one month out from the Early Signing Period and the 2020 Rice Football recruiting class keeps adding new names to their radar.

The already star-studded 2020 Rice Football recruiting class would like to add a few new names to the ranks before the Early Signing Period arrives on December 18. The Owls are making plans for several additional high school additions, but they’ll keep their eyes on potential transfer targets as well. Here are a few names that have emerged in recent weeks.

Mike Leone – OT – Hun School (NJ) – 2020

I mentioned Leone in a previous update, but I wanted to bring him back up here because of a new development in his recruitment. The Yale commit is pickup up offers from Kansas an Maryland in recent weeks. He’s bypassed the opportunity to take an official visit to the Terps prior to the early signing period. Instead, he’ll fly to Houston to visit Rice. This one is far from over, but beating out a local Power 5 school for a visit prior to the early signing period is obviously a huge win for Rice.

DJ Warnell – CB – Dickinson (Dickinson, TX) – 2020

Dickinson corner DJ Warnell’s recruitment has picked up quickly this year. Starting with offers from Boston College and Texas Tech in January, Warnell’s offer count has climbed to 16, including a host of Power 5 schools like Arizona and Tennessee. Rice became the most recent to jump into the fray following a visit last week.

Mason Tharp – TE – Klein (TX) – 2021

Three freshmen in the current 2019 class have played in every game this season. One of them, Jack Bradley, plays tight end. It’s no coincidence that a school which runs more two-tight end and three-tight end sets than most every other school in the nation makes the position a priority.

For 2021, Rice has set its sights on Mason Tharp. The 6-foot-7 big man plays center on the basketball team and has plus athleticism. He can play in-line or split out and he’s a bruiser in the running game.

DJ Arkansas – LB – Ryan (Denton, TX) – 2021

Rice thinks they’ve identified a premier pass rusher in Denton Ryan-product DJ Arkansas. The Owls’ were the first school to offer Arkansas, knowing he was the right fit for the program early on. They’ve been cautious with the offers extended to anyone in the 2021 class to this point, making Arkansas a clear priority. He loved his first gameday visit and has had nothing but positive things to say about the program and the staff.

Arkansas, along with Tharp and Cibolo Steele QB Wyatt Begeal, are the only three offers the Owls have extended to members of the 2021 class.

Filling out the class

There were 10 non-highschool additions to the 2019 Rice Football recruiting class. JUCO transfers Brad Rozner, Naeem Smith and Miles McCord and seven grad transfers, most notably three offensive linemen and quarterback Tom Stewart complimented the predominantly young influx of talent.

The total number of veteran additions might not be as high as 10, but the staff is keeping their eye on the Transfer Portal for the right kind of instant-impact players to add to the 2020 class. There’s a good chance the Owls pursue a quarterback, offensive lineman and wide receiver, and possibly a few other positions where they’ll be thinner than they’d like to be next fall.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep. 16 – 2019 Marshall Review

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With the second open weekend of the season looming, Carter and Matthew discuss the emergence of JoVoni Johnson and Rice Football vs Marshall in Week 10.

Despite only finishing with seven points, the Rice football offense had some sparks against Marshall during their Homecoming weekend. Follow along with the Owls’ current quarterback predicament, a still stingy defense and another busy week on South Main in this week’s episode.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, Give a listen to Episode 16 below.

Episode 16 Notes

  • News and notes —  Rice Basketball is under way with the women and men opening their season. We touch on that briefly as well as a shout out to the Owls’ undefeated-in-conference-play and national ranked volleyball team who host Western Kentucky on Sunday.
  • Marshall Review — The new-look offense sure felt a lot different than previous iterations on the Owls’ efforts on that side of the ball. Juma Otoviano plus JoVoni Johnson was a dangerous combination, unfortunately one which was ended prematurely when Johnson left the game with injury. And of course, shoutouts to a constantly tenacious defense. Saturday featured big days from Antonio Montero, Blaze Alldredge, Naeem Smith and Garrett Grammer.
  • The redshirt dilemma — There is a very real scenario where both Johnson and grad transfer quarterback Tom Stewart are healthy for the Owls’ upcoming game against Middle Tennesse. Johnson has one game remaining to preserve his redshirt. Will Rice preserve his eligibility? Or will they do everything they can to win now? What’s the right answer? Carter and Matthew discuss.

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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Rice Football Film Room 2019: Marshall review

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The Rice football offense has some new players to break down. In this week’s edition of the film room we take a look at JoVoni Johnson and Juma Otoviano against Marshall.

Hey y’all, and welcome back to the Rice Football Film Room. This week we’ll be taking a look at a few plays that hopefully bode well for the future of Rice’s struggling offense.

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Rice Women’s Basketball: Owls blow past Nicholls St in season opener

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Nicholls St scored the first two points before Rice Women’s Basketball slammed the door in an emphatic season-opening rout at Tudor Fieldhouse.

In many ways, the beginning of the 2019-2020 Rice Women’s basketball season began just as last season had ended. It took less than five minutes of play before Nancy Mulkey had a block and Erica Ogwumike had a basket and bucket. A 2-0 Nicholls St lead evaporated quickly, with Rice outscoring the Colonels 17-6 throughout the remainder of the first quarter.

The Owls used their trademark suffocating defense to make their early double-digit lead feel insurmountable. They held Nicholls St to 27.8 percent shooting from the field in the first half. By half, they’d more than doubled up their opponent.

More: 2019-2020 Rice Women’s Basketball season preview

From there it was clockwork for the Owls, who had already turned quickly to their young bench. Freshmen Lauren Schwartz, Destiny Jackson, Katelyn Crosthwait, India Bellamy, Ashlee Austin and Arianna McCurry made their collegiate debuts, with Schwartz earning a starting nod. Every player on the roster saw action, 12 scored and 12 registered at least one rebound. Rice would go on to win by a final score of 71-41.

“We hoped that we could come out and get out to a good lead and make sure we got an opportunity to see everyone together in different lineups,” head coach Tina Langley said after the game.” It was good to have that opportunity today.”

Player of the Game

Prior to the beginning of the season, Erica Ogwumike was named to the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award watch list which honors the best shooting guard in the nation. Nancy Mulkey was named to the Lisa Leslie Award watch list, honoring the best center. We knew those two stars were going to shine bright for Rice Women’s Basketball this season. What we didn’t know for sure, was who would step up to join them.

Sophomore guard Haylee Swayzee would like to throw her hat into the ring. Swayze was eighth on the team in minutes played last season, averaging 4.3 points per game with 22 three-pointers. She did much more than that in her first action of the 2019-2020 season. On Tuesday, she knocked down four shots from deep and led the team with 22 points.

“It was really fun,” Swayze said of her big night before pivoting to her supporting cast. “I think we’ve done a really good job of playing together as a team, we’ve really embraced our “Go Together” [motto] this year,”

If the Owls can add some outside shooting to their one-two punch on the interior, this is going to be a very scary team come March.

Up Next

Rice Women’s Basketball gets one more home game before their first trip away from South Main. They host Arkansas Little Rock on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. It’ll be a double-header for Rice fans. The men play their home opener following the conclusion of the women’s contest at 3:30 p.m.

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