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

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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.

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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.”

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Houston claims Silver Glove Series with pair of wins over Rice Baseball

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Rice baseball dropped the first two games of the Silver Glove series this week, narrowly being outscored by Houston by a combined score of 8-3.

TUESDAY | Houston 4 – Rice 1

Houston had one strong inning with the bat on Tuesday, but they made the production count. The Cougars struck for three runs in the second inning off Rice starter Robert Fernandez, who pitched relatively well, all things considered, going five innings and allowing three runs, the final two of which came across on a bases-clearing triple in that fateful second frame.

Last Time Out: Bats wake up as Rice Baseball sweeps Houston Christian

Trailing 3-0, Rice would manufacture one run in the eight. Kyte McDonald walked and stole second, moving into scoring position for Treyton Rank who drove him in with a single. Houston tacked on an insurance run in the eighth and that would be that.

WEDNESDAY | Houston 4 – Rice 2

A true bullpen game featuring 15 pitchers saw consistent traffic on the base paths for both teams. But despite the accumulation of pitches, hits and free passes, runs trickled in here and there, rather than flowing in droves.

Houston got on the board first with a solo home run in the third. Rice tied things in the fifth on a sac fly from Manny Garza that felt a few feet short of a game-changing grand slam. Instead, the game was back to even for a few more innings until Houston scratched across three more to take a 4-1 lead midway through the eighth. The Cougars would hold on to claim the series, which concludes next week.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

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ON DECK | vs Tulane (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Baseball battles through rain to sweep Houston Christian

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Rice baseball picked up its first home series sweep of the season, battling through the rain to take all three games against Houston Christian at Reckling Park.

It was all smiles at Reckling Park following a weekend sweep of a team from across town. Rice baseball moved to 8-11 on the season with conference play looming ahead. “All in all, it was an excellent weekend for us. We were challenging the guy on the offensive side to be more than they have been, get on the plate and create some more issues on the offensive side and they really did,” head coach Jose Cruz Jr said.

“They took it personally and they were swinging the bat. They were confident. They battled with two strikes. They got hits with guys on base. They had more stolen base attempts, executed bunts. All that was really good. That’s the kind of attitude that we just need to have moving forward.”

FRIDAY | Rice 10 – HCU 7

It became evident this would not be a pitcher’s duel when Rice ace Parker Smith was lifted after three innings that required 62 pitches to get through. The Owls were in front 4-3 when Smith departed, but ceded that advantage in the fifth inning when Smith’s relief, Tom Vincent, surrendered a pair of two-out RBI hits.

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Trailing 7-6, Rice went quietly in the sixth before getting something going in the seventh. The first three batters reached, setting up a bases-loaded situation with no outs. Two strikeouts later, the burden fell to Trey Duffield who delivered in style, mashing the two-out delivery over the left field fence for a grand slam. Vincent followed with a scoreless eighth before Davion Hickson stepped in for the ninth, earning his second save of the season.

SATURDAY | Rice 7 – HCU3

Rice were visitors in their home park after weather forced the Saturday contest, previously scheduled to be played at Houston Christian, back to South Main. They found themselves trailing after the first inning, giving up a pair to HCU via a pair of errors in the infield, before rallying back in the top of the second.

The Owls hung three on HCU starter Parker Edwards, who they’d knock out of the game early in the fourth. JD McCracken settled in quickly, working through five allowing just two earned runs as the bats continued to tack on runs, steadily increasing their advantage. Treyton Rank’s two-RBI double in the eighth left plenty of cushion for Tyler Hamilton, who earned the last six outs and his first save of the season.

SUNDAY | Rice 10 – HCU 6

There was no Rice deficit to be seen in the series finale. The Owls struck for two in the first inning before hitting around in the second, sending 11 to the plate in a seven-run outburst that gave the home team a commanding 9-0 lead entering the third. At that point, all Ryland Urbancyzk had to do was hold the line. He worked 4.2 innings in relief, handing the ball to Mauricio Rodriguez who earned the win.

Kyte McDonald, Jack Riedel and Nathan Becker all had three-hit games as Rice baseball unloaded the bench and was able to get a host of position players into the game in the later innings. HCU was eventually able to get a bit closer, threatening with bases loaded in the ninth, but Davion Hickson came in and shut the threat down quickly, earning the save and clinching the sweep.

THREE FOR THE ROAD

Rice baseball needed a weekend to get right and did just that against Houston Christian. Three straight wins, regardless of opponent, are a boon for morale. Here are three takeaways from the series:

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ON DECK | at UH (Tues), vs UH (Wed), vs Tulane (Fri-Sun)

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Rice Women’s Basketball routs ECU, wins AAC Championship

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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.

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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

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Rice Basketball season comes to an end with AAC Tourney loss to Wichita State

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Rice basketball came out hot but was unable to finish, falling to Wichita State in the first round of the AAC Tournament in Fort Worth, TX.

Shocked doesn’t even begin to accurately describe how Rice basketball must have felt midway through the first half on Wednesday afternoon. The 13-Seed Owls had taken a 17-4 lead over the 12-Seed Wichita State Shockers to start the game. Things were going well. And then Wichita State just could not miss.

Wichita State hit 19 of their final 22 shots of the first half, thundering back from a 13-point deficit to take a 13-point lead at the break. During that stretch, the Shockers shot 86.3 percent from the field. Few could have anticipated quite how quickly the script could have been flipped, even when accounting for the Owls’ inconsistency on defense and a potent shooting performance.

“Basketball is a game of runs, right?” Travis Evee mused when recalling that furious Wichita State rally. “I think we really stayed together. It heightened our focus, our energy to climb back and weather that storm.”

Down by double-digits to start the second half with their backs against the wall, Rice basketball thundered back. Evee knocked down a pair of threes, keying a 12-0 Rice run to turn a potential blowout into a one-point game after Alem Husenovic knocked down a key jump shot.

It truly was back and forth from that point onward with 11 lead changes transpired over the course of the next five minutes and neither team leading by more than two possessions until the Shockers’ Xavier Bell knocked down a fast break layup with six seconds on the clock to put the game out of reach.

With the loss, Rice basketball falls to 11-21 on the season. A streak of back-to-back seasons in which the Owls played in a postseason tournament will come to an end as the program does some soul-searching in hopes of charting a brighter future moving forward.

Final Box | Wichita State 88 – Rice 81

What They’re Saying |

“It’s been a great four years and this one’s going to sting, probably for a while. It’s not the way that we wanted to go out, but I think in about a week or two weeks, whenever this wears off, I’ll really be able to look back and really be thankful for everything that this university has given me, everything that [head coach Scott Pera and Max Fiedler] have given me. I’m gonna miss playing with them. I’m gonna miss putting on the jersey. I’m gonna miss being in the locker room with these guys.” – Travis Evee on his Rice basketball career

Key takeaway | Going the wrong way

In the seventh season under Pera, Rice basketball has officially taken a significant step backward. The Owls finished above .500 under Pera for the second time last season but will finish this campaign 10 games below .500, their worst mark since his inaugural season.

The offense, which has been Pera’s calling card, has regressed from scoring 76.9 points per game last season to 71.7 points per game this season. The defense, a constant source of frustration, ranks 269th in the nation, allowing 75.3 points per game, a number that will worse after allowing 88 points on Wednesday.

“It’s uncanny, the misfortune we had this year,” Pera said, noting the series of close losses and bad bounces along the way.

Pera has built his tenure on the back of steady, gradual improvement. Faced with a tougher league schedule with the move to the AAC and the departure of star guard Quincy Olivari, who led the Big East in scoring for Xavier this season, it feels like that train has jumped the tracks.

Pera’s seventh season ends like many of the ones before it, with him at the podium reiterating “We’ve got to get better defensively.” Seven seasons in and the refrain is the same. And it’s not going to get any easier.

Rice basketball will lose Travis Evee and Max Fiedler this offseason. There is talent remaining on the roster, but the proof of concept of what this could be feels sufficient. At its best, this has been a .500 program under Pera, whose future on South Main is in question. Athletic Director Tommy McClelland has proven amenable to patience in other sports, but that’s come in conjunction with progress. This was a step back — and a significant one at that — one that Pera might not survive.

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