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Rice Basketball downed by New Mexico, falls to 1-4

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Rice basketball fell to 0-2 at the Ball Dawgs Classic, falling too far behind in the first half to New Mexico on another tough night from three.

It wasn’t quite a repeat performance of the night before, but it was another discouraging result for Rice Basketball which fell to 1-4 on the season following a Wednesday night loss to New Mexico at the Ball Dawgs Classic in Las Vegas, NV. A changeup in the starting lineup, swapping in Noah Shelby in place of Anthony Selden didn’t seem to produce any material results.

Rice scored the first points, courtesy of a layup from Max Fiedler, but then watched their opponent go on a 16-3 run. New Mexico had their first double-digit lead before the second media timeout. Travie Evee kept the Owls afloat, leading all scorers with 11 first-half points.

After connecting on just 3-of-12 triples in the first half, Rice found some life early on in the second frame when their long balls began to fall. Rice made their first three three-pointers after intermission, cutting a deficit that had ballooned to 15 down to eight. The defense stepped up at that point too, contributing to nine consecutive missed shots for New Mexico.

As has been the case over the past four games, though, the bright spots were limited to brief moments and not stretched over the course of a 40-minute game. A 13-3 run midway through the second half put this game out of reach for good. Rice would go on to lose by a final score of 90-56.

Final Box | New Mexico 90 – Rice 56

Key takeaway | Can’t buy a bucket

Rice basketball likes to play fast and shoot the ball. When the shots go in, that’s all well and good. When they don’t, things can get out of hand quickly. And while the Owls possess the firepower to hurtle back and overcome deficits other teams might not, it’s certainly not a tactic they’d like to rely upon.

A season ago, Rice shot 44.9 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from three. Those are averages, mind you, not highs and lows. Excluding their opener against Saint Thomas, Rice has yet to eclipse that shooting percentage from the field, managing just 34.0 percent from the floor against New Mexico. A dismal 25 percent shooting performance from three only made the troubles worse.

They’ve got one more game in Vegas to fight through. Then it’s back home against a couple of more manageable opponents and a much-needed, albeit brief reprieve from this rigorous non-conference schedule.

Up Next: Ball Dawg’s Classic – Henderson, NV (UC Irvine – Nov. 24)

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Rice Basketball blown away by Indiana State

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Rice basketball opened the Ball Dawgs Classic with a loss to Indiana State, losing the turnover battle and allowing too many long range shots.

Nothing seemed amiss in the early goings of the opening game for Rice basketball at the Ball Dawgs Classic in Las Vegas, NV. Rice and Indiana State traded early shots and were neck and neck through the first half of the opening frame. With the Owls leading 19-18 and the clock ticking under 12, it felt like a competitive game was about to unfold. That would not be the case.

Rice would go on to make just two shots in the next seven minutes of court time. During that period, Indiana State rained down six threes. The Owls simply could not keep up and their woes were further magnified by a season-high 18 turnovers.

That run took a close game and teetered it toward blowout territory. By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, Rice trailed by 21. Travis Evee did his part, contributing a season-high 25 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the early hole. Rice cut the deficit to 13 in the final minute, but they never had a real chance to win this basketball game once they fell behind in the manner with which they did.

“We knew they were a really good team coming in. They are a good team,” head coach Scott Pera said. “They made 16 threes and you’re never going to lose when you do that.”

Final Box | Indiana State 103 – Rice 88

Key takeaway | Don’t Hand Away Your Margin

Rice basketball had committed 18 turnovers in their last two games combined and 23 total on the season. To turn the ball over 18 times was devastating for the Owls’ offensive flow and marked one of the sloppiest performances taking care of the basketball for this team in quite some time. They only had three games with more turnovers in all of last season.

Pera pointed directly toward that glaring deficiency when explaining the loss. “I think it was our inability to take care of the ball,” he said. “We gave them turnovers. We gave them some open looks. There was a lot of miscommunication on defense that gave them wide-open looks. And they didn’t miss them.”

Rice made 10 threes against Indiana State and shot the ball decently well. They scored 88 points. This was a game that might have been competitive if the Owls had done enough to keep the game within reach. This team can score, but that skill won’t pay dividends if the defense and ball handling aren’t strong enough to keep games within reach.

There’s only so much margin for error that can be accounted for in a basketball game. Rice handed away all that margin and then some. The best teams struggle to win when turning the ball over at the rate the Owls’ did on Tuesday. Rice has some work to do before they’re in that company.

Up Next: Ball Dawg’s Classic – Henderson, NV (New Mexico – Nov. 22)

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 168 – Rice Football blasts Charlotte

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Rice football got back in the win column with an emphatic victory over Charlotte thanks to a dominant defense and an outstanding day from Dean Connors.

For the first time in the last four weeks, Rice football faced an opponent that was not unbeaten in league play and the Owls took out several weeks’ worth of frustration against the hapless Charlotte 49ers. This game wasn’t very close and Rice did what they needed to do to put it out of reach and then slam the door. We recap the win and talk about the true talent level of this team as the season winds down.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 168.

Episode Notes

DCTF

The Roost Podcast is now part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You’ll still get the same content with the same hosts, but now under the DCTF banner.

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We’re thrilled to partner with Homefield Apparel, the premier proprietor of college football clothing. First-time buyers can use the code ROOST for 15% off their order. The Owls hoodie is a personal favorite. So is the brand new Luv-Ya-Owls shirt. Shop the Rice collection or pick up something else (or both)!

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Recapping Rice Football vs Charlotte

  • What a day from the Rice defense
  • What a day from Dean Connors
  • Rice corners Tre’shon Devones and Sean Fresch deliver again
  • What could this team’s record be against a more balanced AAC schedule?
  • DJ Arkansas shines
  • One big game left against FAU

Where can you find us?

The Roost Podcast is part of the Dave Campbell’s Republic of Football Podcast Network. You can find this podcast and all of our partner podcasts on Apple, Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts.ri

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Bokunewicz’s big day powers Rice Women’s Basketball past St. Mary’s

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Rice women’s basketball overcame a slow start, catching fire in the second half behind the masterful shooting performance of Maya Bokunewicz.

It wasn’t the start Rice women’s basketball would have hoped to see on Sunday afternoon. After trading baskets early, Rice fell behind by nine points by the end of the first quarter, committing uncharacteristic penalties and making mental mistakes. Their opponent, Saint Mary’s pushed their advantage to double-digits early in the second quarter, putting the game on the brink of disaster should the Owls not settle down.

Head coach Lindsay Edmonds pulled the team aside and challenged them to focus.

“I just challenged. I challenge them to be who we are. We had not been that yet. And I was just telling them if wanted to play today, they would show up and play because at that point I  didn’t feel like they had shown up,” Edmonds said. “If we were playing blah it is not good for us. So I just challenged them to be us. And if they were ready to play, I was ready to watch them. They stepped up and they were ready to get going after that.

Not only did Rice find its rhythm, but they played some of their best basketball yet from that point onward. An 11-0 Rice run erased the Gaels’ lead entirely, with the Owls taking a brief two-point lead before heading into halftime even at 35-all.

The defense was starting to gel and the Owls were taking better care of the basketball. Maya Bokunewicz did the rest. The veteran guard connected on seven three-pointers, tying the school record and pushing the Rice lead to as many as 16 points.

When St. Mary’s tried to mount a late comeback, Rice made its free throws and Dominque Ennis delivered the dagger three in the closing seconds to put the game away. Rice moves to 3-2 with the win.

Final Box | Rice 73 – St. Mary’s 62

What They’re Saying

“We have kids that are now sophomores that were freshmen and played a lot of minutes, but there’s still ultimately very young on the basketball court. But there’s a lot of times they do not show their youth and inexperience at times today, I felt like we we showed that a little bit, but we’re still figuring it out. We don’t want to peak right now. We want to be peaking in February and March. I told them after the last game, we don’t need to hang our heads and hopefully, these adversities we’re facing now are going to bring us blessings in February and March.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Masterful Maya

This team is still learning who to lean on in big moments. A season ago, Ashlee Austin and Destiny Jackson were the spark plugs that willed this program to win. Jackson remains, but her role as a distributor is just as important as that of a scorer. She’s going to need someone else to make those clutch shots. On Sunday, that clutch someone was Maya Bokunewicz.

“Maya Buckets, that’s the opening statement,” Edmonds joked.

Bokunewicz tied a career-high with 26 points, reached in large part by the aforementioned seven triples. Even with her big day from behind the arc, Rice still only shot 38 percent from the floor. All of those makes mattered. The fact that they counted for three instead of two was a bonus.

“I kind of lost count,” Bokunewicz admitted. “I would just shoot one and it would go in… it kept happening. Like coach Edmonds said, my teammates really just found me, I was wide open and I just happened to be really on today.”

Up Next: at Stephen F. Austin (Sat. Nov 25)

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Rice Football runs all over Charlotte in must-win game

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Rice Football went on the road in a must-win situation and came away with the victory, running all over Charlotte spurred by terrific defensive play.

Playing with a backup quarterback for the second week in a row, Rice football took care of business and won on the road. The victory over Charlotte served as payback from last season’s loss and sets Rice up in a familiar situation. If they can win in the final game of the regular season they’ll clinch bowl eligibility. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Have a day, Defense

Charlotte scored 33 points and 38 points in their last two games, respectively. The Rice defense compiled a first-half shutout and they did so despite the Rice offense turning the ball over twice and losing one of their premier pass rushers, Coleman Coco, to a targeting penalty.

One quick aside on targeting — let’s get rid of the rule. The penalty has been called three times in the Owls’ last three games and the hit Coco gave on Charlotte quarterback Jalon Jones was probably the least egregious of the three. Yet Coco was ejected, the other players weren’t. This randomness in officiating needs to stop.

And even still, the Rice defense persevered. They held Charlotte to seven points for the game and 2.8 yards per play. There wasn’t ever a moment when it felt like the 49ers found any sort of rhythm on that side of the ball, despite Rice playing without Coco, without linebacker Chris Conti and with a limited Tre’shon Devones.

“I thought the defense was the story of the day. No matter what situation they got put in, they found a way to get off the field except for one time,” head coach Mike Bloomgren said. “Our guys just competed and fought their butts off.”

Rice was minus two as a team in turnover margin against Charlotte (and minus three until the last possession in mop-up time). The 49ers offense still only mustered one score, and it took an interception return inside the redzone and a pass interference penalty that gave them the ball inside the five to get that much.

Playing against an offense that didn’t feature a top four quarterback in the AAC, the Rice defense looked stout. What that means for their year-long stature isn’t that relevant anymore, but it does bode well for the unit as they prepare for an undermanned FAU team at home next weekend. This defense is good, maybe not elite, but definitely stout enough to get the job done if the offense can carry its own weight.

The Dean Connors Show

Connors touched the ball 19 times on Saturday and averaged 9.7 yards per touch. His 19 carries were the most by a Rice running back this year. His 184 yards broke his own career-best outing against Tulsa, where he rushed for 120 yards on nine carries.

“That was a motivated kid who always has a chip on his shoulder. You know how I feel about Dean Connors,” Bloomgren said. “But this one was special for all of us. To have their defensive coordinator Ryan Osborn call him out by name and say they’re going to account for Dean Connors and know where he is and stop him. I don’t know that they were able to stop him today and that’s because he ran possessed. He played the game the right way.”

The only underwhelming part of his performance was a fumble late in the second quarter. But again, thanks to the Rice defense, the Owls weren’t hurt by the miscue. The fumble came on Connors’ first touch since the Owls’ opening drive of the second quarter. Somehow Rice managed to call 11 plays without getting the ball in Connors’ hands.

Connors wasn’t bothered by the miscue. He built on his strong first half performance with a dominant second half showing. He was instrumental in the Owls’ 13-play, 75-yard drive that burned 7:17 off the clock and iced the game. Connors touched the ball six times on that drive, seven if you count a 25-yard run taken off the board via a holding penalty.

Quarterback-proofing the Rice offense remains a work in progress

Following years of quarterback tumult, there have been a few moments this season when the Rice offense performed at a high level without its starting quarterback on the field. There were some of those on Saturday, most of which involved the Owls getting the ball into the hands of their playmakers and letting them make plays rather than leaning on their passer.

Freshman Chase Jenkins operated the offense at a high level in the second half against SMU. This time it was AJ Padgett whose afternoon was a mixed bag of good and bad. Whether they should have or not is an open question, but the Rice coaching staff clearly trusted Padgett to run the full offense. At times he rewarded them — like the final fourth down touchdown heave — at others, he didn’t.

“That’s not the best of AJ. We’ve got to find a way to be able to get it on gameday, to get the best of him, because it’s really good,” Bloomgren acknowledged. “There’s week over week in game growth, for sure, but we’ve got to play a little cleaner than that.”

Padgett led five scoring drives and ran the ball in himself twice, but his two interceptions were unforced errors that could have been much more costly had the Rice defense not been playing at such an elite level.

Yes, having JT Daniels is always the preferred option, but this is now the second time in the past three games Rice has proven they can move the ball and score without an all-time program great like Daniels on the field. They’re better with Daniels, but they’re not dead in the water without him. A few weeks ago that was a much more palpable concern.

One more

Rice football head coach Mike Bloomgren reminded the assembled media during his press conference this week the Owls entered the year with three primary goals: win the conference, make a bowl game and win that bowl game.

“We’re not going to win the conference championship,” Bloomgren stated then. “And neither are 12 other teams in the American.” The remaining two goals are still on the table. And they became even more tangible after Saturday’s victory over Charlotte.

It’s been a bumpy ride, but Rice football is one game away from bowl eligibility. If Rice can beat FAU next weekend, head coach Mike Bloomgren will become just the third coach in the history of the program to take the Owls to back-to-back bowl games. As the Owls’ headman fights to prove the program is making progress, that piece of potential history looms large.

Bloomgren understands what’s at stake. Last year his team lost at North Texas, reaching bowl eligibility as a five-win team. That loss came on the heels of two prior losses and came with a team not playing it’s best football of the season at that point. The Owls looked much better on Saturday than they did down the stretch a year ago.

“We understand what’s at play this week and how big of a deal this game’s going to be. It’s huge,” Bloomgren said. “I would expect these guys to prepare like they never have for a football game — and we really don’t need that — I just need them to do the process the way they’ve been doing it all year because they’ve prepared the right way. Now I need them to go perform like they did today and we’ll all be really happy with those results.”

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