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Rice Women’s Basketball tops Wichita State in AAC opener

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Forced to play away from home in their American Conference opener, Rice Women’s Basketball prevailed nonetheless, topping Wichita State at the Fertitta Center across town.

Rice women’s basketball did not open American Conference play under ideal circumstances. The Owls were forced to play their “home opener” just down the road at the Fertitta Center because of water damage to Tudor Fieldhouse over the holidays.

Makeshift visitors in their inaugural game in a new league, Rice took some time to get settled into their red-clad benches. The Owls and the true visitors, Wichita State, traded baskets and free throws throughout the first quarter. It wasn’t until the midpoint of the second frame that the Owls started to find their groove, opening an 11-point lead, only for the Shockers to whittle it back within one score at halftime.

Wichita State scored the first five points in the second half, but it was all Rice from that point onward. The Owls outscored the Shockers 20-8 through the rest of the third quarter, taking a double-digit lead into the fourth quarter. Dominque Ennis led the charge, scoring 11 of her 17 points after the break. She left the game with a minute remaining in regulation with an injury, souring an otherwise very encouraging night for the Owls.

Staked to a 10-point advantage entering the fourth, the margin waivered below 10 points on two brief occasions, but the Owls delivered clutch free throws and kept things from getting too interesting down the stretch. Despite some early jitters, Rice found a way to close out the “home” win away from Tudor Fieldhouse and move to 1-0 in AAC play.

Final Box | Rice 76 – Wichita State 64

Key takeaway | Making the right adjustments

Early on, Wichita State was able to hang around in this game because of their ability to capitalize on extra opportunities. They outrebounded Rice 24-20 and edged Rice 10-5 in second-chance points, netting 33 percent of their first half scoring after their first shot failed. That’s an exorbitant amount of extra chances and something the Owls simply could not let continue if they were going to win this game.

Not only did Rice do a better job on the boards in the second half, 17-14 in their favor, but they stonewalled Wichita State in those second half opportunities. The Shockers had zero second-chance points in the second half, allowing that double-digit point differential that was bypassed in the first half to flow in earnest after the halftime buzzer. Without the extra opportunities, the Shockers couldn’t keep pace with the Owls.

The teams that strive to compete well into March can make those sorts of adjustments. Wednesday’s win was another step in the right direction for a Rice women’s basketball team that hopes to do just that.

Up Next: at SMU (Sunday, Jan. 7)

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Turnovers sink Rice Football in First Responder Bowl vs Texas State

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Rice Football wasted a strong defensive performance, turning the ball over seven times in a loss to Texas State in the SERVPRO First Responders Bowl.

Rice football is going to have to wait at least one more year to check off a bowl win from its to-do list. The Owls started slow but rallied to tie the game midway through the second quarter before self-inflicted wounds soured a second straight bowl appearance and a second straight loss.

“We didn’t perform real well today and that’s always disappointing,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said. “Some of that is certainly because of Texas State and the plays that they made but there’s a lot of plays that we’re very capable of playing that we did not make today.”

Bloomgren was quick to say all the right things about the Bobcats. He credited their playmaking ability and the ways they changed the game on both sides of the ball. But he brought the burden back upon his shoulders and the shoulders of his team. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Luke McCaffrey is special

The Texas State offense got off to a fast start while Rice football struggled to find its rhythm. As the offensive line adjusted, AJ Padgett eased into the game and the runners searched for available yards, Luke McCaffrey applied jolt after jolt to wake his teammates up.

McCaffrey picked up a key third down on a jet sweep to get the Owls inside the redzone. Then he delivered again a few plays later with a tightrope walk down the sideline for the Owls’ opening score.

If this is the last time we see Luke McCaffrey in a Rice uniform, it was a treat. That score was his 13th touchdown reception of the season, tying James Casey (2008) for the fourth most in school history. His 19 career touchdown receptions are third all-time at Rice. In just two years, McCaffrey has firmly affixed himself among the greatest receivers in program history. He will be missed.

One more bright spot on offense: Dean Connors was the first Owl with multiple rushing touchdowns in a bowl game since Dicky Maegle scored three against Alabama in the 1954 Cotton Bowl.

Offense implodes

The driver for the Owls’ offensive issues was a lack of protection up front. Whether it was in the passing game or the running game, Rice was getting punished at the line of scrimmage. AJ Padgett was sacked twice in the first quarter and took several additional hits. He evaded pressure as best he could and stood in the pocket and took some hits, but it was almost impossible to find any sort of rhythm.

“I’m sure there were times when the protection could have been better, but there were times that the first read was there and we just need to get the ball to one of our best players and give him a chance. And we weren’t able to do that,” Bloomgren said. “And things snowballed a little bit today. I don’t know that we were able to go to the next play as well as I wish we could once we got shook.”

It was the same story on the ground. Rice managed four yards on their first 12 carries, including the 12 yards lost on Padgett sacks. Even excluding the sack yardage, 1.6 yards per carry makes for a dismal outing.

All of that would have been bad enough. Then came the turnovers. The Rice offense handed the ball to Texas State five times. AJ Padgett threw three interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns. Third-stringer Shawqi Itraish (who entered the season fourth string behind JT Daniels, Padgett and Jenkins) threw two more picks.

Nothing went right for the Rice offense on a night when just a little bit of juice might have gone a long way given how well the defense played.

Defense does its part

While the offense spun its wheels, the defense did all it could to keep Texas State in front of them. The Bobcat offense had seven drives in the first half. They scored two quick touchdowns on a seven-play and an eight-play drive, respectively.

On the other five drives, Texas State had four three-and-outs and one field goal, tallying 68 yards on 27 total plays, 2.5 yards per play. That included a redzone stand inside the 10-yard line to force a field goal as the clock ran down in the second quarter. Several plays of that sequence happened without Josh Pearcy and Coleman Coco on the field as they battled injuries, although Coco returned to finish the series.

Handed a short field following a special teams gaffe to start the third quarter, the defense made Texas State earn every yard of their first possession of the second half. The Bobcats would score on a throwback pass to an offensive lineman following a 10-play, 30-yard drive.

“They were dominant,” Bloomgren said. “It didn’t matter what situation they got put in they really did some really cool things tonight.”

Every point counts, but the defense was only responsible for 31 points — several on short fields —  against a Texas State team that averaged 36 points per game, a top 20 mark in the nation. It was a solid performance that could have been enough for a win had the special teams and offense done their part.

AJ Padgett underwhelms in prime time audition

Rice football signed former Temple quarterback and AAC passing leader EJ Warner during the early signing period. No declarations when Bloomgren met with the media to address the class, but Bloomgren has commented before on his strategy when it comes to adding transfers. It’s merit-based. The best player will play.

Production on the field at Rice is part of that evaluation. Padgett had a golden opportunity against a Texas State defense that has leaked yards and points all season to offer his first audition to the coaching staff and make his claim for the starting job. He failed.

Padgett’s picks were crippling. None of the turnovers were fluke plays with balls bouncing off receivers and landing in the wrong hands. All three were squarely on the decision-making of Padgett who put the ball in places where it ought not have gone.

Bloomgren confirmed after the game both of Padgett’s removals were performance-based decisions. He was benched for Chase Jenkins, returned to the game briefly, and then was lifted for Itraish. On a night when he needed to be at his best, he was benched twice.

“I thought we’d exhaust everything we had,” Bloomgren said when asked about the quarterback moves. “I wanted to make sure this team and especially those seniors on defense knew we were trying everything we could to get this thing going and give them a chance to win this game.”

We’ll probably have a quarterback battle in the spring and given Warner’s resume, he probably should have been the frontrunner to begin with. Padgett didn’t do himself any favors on Tuesday night. Neither did anyone else.

Special Teams goes out on a low note

It’s been a rough year for special teams. The bowl game might have been the lowest point yet. On Tuesday night we saw the special teams unit:

  • Kick a kickoff out of bounds
  • Kick a 16-yard punt
  • Muff a pooch kick and allow Texas State to gain possession
  • Lose possession after a player was hit in the head running down to block for a punt return

Two special teams turnovers don’t come close to the offense’s total (five), but they can’t escape notice after the year this unit has had.

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Rice Basketball falls short against Louisiana

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Rice basketball dropped its final contest of 2023 to Louisiana and will enter AAC play 6-7 overall in the New Year.

Finally back to .500 at 6-6 following a tough start to the season, Rice basketball was hoping to finish off their final game before a lengthy holiday break with a win. Those dreams died rather quickly on Friday night, however, as Louisiana marched into Tudor Fieldhouse and dropped 10 first-half three-pointers on the Owls, knocking down seven of their first nine from distance.

Rice got off to a much slower start, making just 29.6 percent of their shots from the field in the first half. They attempted just nine threes as their normal leading scorer, Travis Evee, was held to just three points before halftime.

Trailing by 14 points at the break, Rice was able to trim the lead on a few separate occasions. The Owls had run of five consecutive baskets and two free throws early in the second half to get within six. They fell behind once more only for Evee and Alem Huseinovic to rain down several threes and get back within single digits. But that was always roughly the margin and never much closer.

Back within eight in the final three minutes, Louisiana would go on a 9-0 run to close it out sending Rice into their Christmas break 6-7.

Final Box | Louisiana 84 – Rice 67

Key takeaway | Time for a reset

It’s been an unforgiving schedule for Rice basketball to start the season. They wanted to be tested and give themselves an opportunity to pick up a marquee win or two. Not only did they not achieve the latter, but they’ll enter their conference slate below .500 on the season.

There’s a lot to unpack and there will be a midseason state of the program coming for our subscribers during the Owls’ long break from the court. The most important thing for this team right now is to exhale, take a deep breath and reset.

Conference play is coming. It’s going to be significantly tougher than it was a season ago in Conference USA. This iteration of Rice basketball has flashed moments of being up to the challenge, but it’s clear they need a break and some time for the coaching staff to make a few additional tweaks. How the season goes from here hangs in the balance.

Up Next: at Tulane – Jan. 3 (Wed.)

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Rice Women’s Basketball blasts PVAMU

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Trinity Gooden returned to the court and Rice women’s basketball rolled to a win, routing Prairie View A&M at home.

Rice women’s basketball was slow out of the gate in their last game against Gonzaga but turned things on in the second half. Even though they didn’t win that game, the Owls found a way to keep that intensity going into their next game against Prairie View A&M.

Buoyed by the return of Trinity Gooden to the lineup after a month’s absence, Rice quickly turned a minor three-point advantage into a double-digit lead. Gooden, Dominque Ennis and Maya Bokunewicz sparked that run with a three-pointer apiece. With the lead in place, the Owls would continue to add to it from that point onward.

That initial run would prove to be a harbinger of things to come as Rice women’s basketball delivered one of their most balanced attacks of the season thus far. Seven different players scored double-digit points as that 10-point lead grew to 20 and eventually to 33 points.

Final Box | Rice 85 – PVAMU 59

What they’re saying

“It feels good to get a win. It’s always good to get a win at home. I thought we played pretty well today. Again, coaches, we’re never happy, right, but I thought for three quarters, we really competed and played Rice women’s basketball [and then] we had a little bit of slippage in the fourth. What I am really proud of is that we had seven in double figures, so a well-balanced attack.

We took care of the basketball even against their pressure and only had 12 turnovers. I thought this was a good game after we had a week off for exams to get us back going and to get us in the win column and get us ready for the next one.” – Rice women’s basketball head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Rounding into form

A healthy Trinity Gooden makes this team better. It also allows coach Edmonds to iron out rotations and roster combinations. Had this game been played in early November, the benches would probably have been emptied and we would have seen 15 players play in the blowout win. Instead, just 10 Owls saw action, with all of them seeing at least 10 minutes of court time apiece.

It’s clear a core group of starters and top bench pieces are forming. How players like Fatou Samb and Kennedy Clifton fit into those permutations is something this staff would prefer to figure out sooner rather than later. Saturday was a good start to those efforts.

Up Next: at Houston (Wed, Dec. 20)

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Rice Basketball coasts to road win over Northwestern St

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Rice basketball posted a second consecutive win, taking care of business on the road against Northwestern State.

Northwestern State scored the first five points on Saturday, holding Rice basketball scoreless for more than three minutes until Travis Evee got the visiting Owls on the board with a jumper, adding another point on an and-one opportunity as Rice began to vault themselves back into the game.

Rice tied the game at nine shortly afterward, then took a 15-13 lead on a three-pointer by Mekhi Mason. The shots would start falling from that point onward. Rice grew their lead to double digits in the first half with Mason delivering the final points of the frame to ensure Rice was in front by 10 at the break.

The second half was all Owls, which began with a 12-2 Rice run, stretching a sizable lead into a blowout. The game was never in doubt from that point onward a Rice utilized solid defense and just enough shooting success to post a third-consecutive victory.

Final Box | Rice 76 – Northwestern State 51

What they’re saying

“We’re really carrying things over right now from the game plan and in practice, on to the court defensively. This team has really taken a good turn defensively. They’re taking pride in it. They’re not wasting possessions. I was really proud of our overall effort and production defensively. Offensively, in the second half, we made layups that we missed in the first half. That was the difference. Any road win is a good win and I’m proud of the team.” – Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera

Key takeaway | Building blocks

Rice basketball has now held consecutive opponents to below 40 percent shooting from the field. The Owls only managed to do that once last season and Northwestern State was included in a three-game stretch of defensive prowess.

Last season serves as a subtle reminder that a good two-game run of defense does not necessarily mean that has become the norm within the program, but it’s a step that shows strong defense is in there somewhere.

On Saturday, Rice dominated the boards, outrebounding Northwestern State 45-29 and limiting shooting opportunities. When those chances did come up, Rice closed quickly and was generally able to impact shots. Northwestern State went 2-of-20 from three.

Up Next: vs Prairie View A&M – Dec. 20 (Wed.)

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