The source for Rice sports news

Rice Women’s Basketball 2021: Owls fly past UTSA with ease, twice

By

Rice women’s basketball continued their winning ways in Conference USA play, beating UTSA twice in two days on the road.

For the fourth consecutive season, Rice women’s basketball opened conference play 2-0. This year, both of the Owls’ victories came against the same team in the same venue. As a part of Conference USA’s efforts to reduce travel, Rice opened their conference slate with back-to-back road games against UTSA.

Rice announced the arrival in San Antonio with authority, jumping out to a 16-3 lead in the opening quarter of the Friday affair. UTSA would hang around into the before a near-perfect third quarter shooting performance from the Owls, who made 10-of-13 shots to push their lead to 20 points. Lauren Schwartz and Nancy Mulkey led the team in scoring with 19 points apiece.

More: Men’s Basketball goes 2-0 against UTSA 

UTSA managed more than three points in the opening frame during the rematch on Saturday, but the result was the same. Rice held the roadrunner to 32.9 percent shooting and never let the Roadrunners get within striking distance after the Owls took the early lead. Sydne Wiggins had a season-high 14 points, but it was Mulkey, again, who led the team in scoring with 20 points.

Rice has now won 36 of their last 38 games against Conference USA opponents. Tina Langley’s squad has adapted as they’ve gone, developing complementary pieces to keep the Owls consistently ahead of their conference foes.

Player Spotlight | Katelyn Crosthwait

Crosthwait is making the most of her insertion into the starting lineup this season. She scored 20 points across the two games against UTSA, also contributing six assists and a pair of steals. She’s continued to develop as a shot maker and consistently provides the Owls another option on that side of the court. Crosthwait was third on the team in minutes played on the weekend.

Stat Corner | Shooters shoot and stoppers stop

Rice is No. 1 in Conference USA in field goal percentage, connecting on a staggering 50% of their shots through seven games. The Owls are also No. 1 on the defensive side, limiting their opponents to 31.6 percent shooting from the field.

Old Dominion is the only other team in the conference to rank in the top half of both metrics. The Monarchs rank fourth in shooting percentage and sixth in shooting defensive percentage.

The Owls have always hung their hat on suffocating defense. Adding an explosive offense that takes (and makes) high percentage shots will make this team hard to beat in conference play.

Up Next

Rice women’s basketball will open their home slate of Conference USA games next weekend against UTEP. Once again, it will be another Friday/Saturday double feature. The Miners are 5-2 this season. Like the Owls, they also swept their opening C-USA series. UTEP took both games against Southern Miss by final scores of 83-65 and 74-72, respectively.

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

Recent Posts

Rice Basketball 2021: Owls rain down threes in two-game sweep of UTSA

By

Rice basketball opened up Conference USA play with back-to-back wins at home against UTSA, their first 2-0 C-USA start since 2007.

It was a wonderful weekend for Rice basketball. The Owls’ cruised to a perfect 2-0 start in conference play, their best start in C-USA action in 14 years. Rice improved to 8-2 on the season with the two wins, their best mark in the opening 10 games under head coach Scott Pera, who picked up his 300th career win on Friday.

The Friday opener was a nailbiter, which ended in exhilarating fashion. Rice trailed 48-42 at halftime and 84-82 in the final five minutes. Both times, the home team rallied. Guard Travis Evee’s eight three-pointers made the difference, propelling the Owls to their first conference win of the season.

They returned to the court for an encore performance on Saturday. This time Rice was in command from start to finish. The Owls lead ballooned to as many as 32 points behind big days from Max Fiedler (8-for-8 field goals for 18 points) and Chris Mullins (20 points, three three-pointers).

“To be up 30 on anybody is really hard in this league,” head coach Scott Pera said in the aftermath. “We just kept churning away.”

That churn and effort were visible from start to finish. Rice has always been a team willing to shoot the three—and they found tremendous success beyond the arc this weekend—but they also proved themselves to be adept when the ball wasn’t in their hands. All in all, it was an impressive weekend for the Owls on the court.

Player Spotlight | Travis Evee

There wasn’t much that didn’t go right for guard Travis Evee this weekend. He shot the ball at a blistering pace, draining 10 of 18 three-pointers and leading the team in scoring on Friday with a career-best 36 points. He was the first Owl to reach that total since Patrick Britton scored 40 against East Carolina in 2008.

Evee’s strong start to conference play is doubly impressive given his status entering the fall. An offseason transfer, Rice had to apply for a waiver to get Evee eligible to play this season. The request was approved on November 18, nine days before the team tipped off in their season opener against Incarnate Word. The impact he’s had on the Owls through 10 games cannot be understated.

Stat Corner | First 2-0 start in conference play since 2006-2007

Rice played their first Conference USA basketball games in the 2005-2006 season. They started 2-0 in league play that season, following it up with a 2-0 start the following season, 2006-2007. They won three straight to start C-USA play, the longest opening winning streak for the Owls since joining Conference USA.

That also marked the last time a Rice team had won two consecutive games to begin its conference slate. The strong start positions the Owls for a small slice of history. Two more wins would make this squad the second team to win three-straight C-USA opening games. The Owls travel to UTEP next weekend.

Up Next

Rice plays their next stint of the league’s newfound doubleheader schedule next Friday/Saturday at UTEP. The Miners are 3-0 at home this season and 5-3 overall. They split their season-opening duet with Southern Miss over the weekend, winning the second of two contests.

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

Recent Posts

The Roost Podcast | Ep 66 – Rice Football 2020 Season Review

By

The 2020 Rice football has come to an end. We debrief the strange season and recap the final game against UAB.

Rice football saw their season end at the hands of the divisional champion UAB Blazers last Saturday. The Owls had their chances, but couldn’t rally behind their third-string quarterback in the season finale. Carter and Matther debrief the loss and dig into what went wrong and what positives can be taken away.

Then the focus pans out to the season as a whole. How did the Owls fair compare to expectations on both sides of the ball? There was a lot of good to be found, especially considering the team played much of the season missing wide receivers, defensive backs and using multiple quarterbacks.

You can always find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 66.

Episode Notes

  • Housekeeping — Don’t miss this opportunity to subscribe on Patreon. Get two months free when you subscribe to an annual membership today. There’s a lot more in store for this football program, including the Early Signing Period this week. Get the scoop on the Owls’ 2021 class and more now.
    Become a Patron!
  • Conference USA news and notes
    • Marshall vs UAB in the Conference USA Championship Game
    • Bowl games announced for five teams
  • Rice Football vs UAB recap
    • Takeaways from the game
    • Drive-by-drive breakdowns of the key series
    • What happened on the two deep touchdown passes?
  • 2020 Season Review
    • Big picture takeaways
    • Offensive evaluations
    • Defensive evaluations
  • What’s next? Coming soon…
    • Early Signing Period recap show
    • 2020 Roosties

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.

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

Recent Posts

Rice Football: Owls’ succumb to beat up Blazers in season finale

By

Rice Football fought to the end but couldn’t overcome an explosive UAB offense, falling in their regular season finale to the divisional champs.

Fresh off a momentous road win, Rice football ran out of gas in front of their home fans. The Owls took UAB to the wire, but couldn’t finish things off in their regular season finale, falling by a final score of 21-16.

Like they’ve become accustomed to, Rice started strong, shutting out UAB in the first quarter and taking a 6-0 lead of their own. UAB founds it’s footing and exploded for to take the lead, forcing Rice into comeback mode in the second half. Down to their third-string quarterback, the Owls could not muster the comeback they needed. Here are a few immediate takeaways from the game:

Pound the rock, control the clock and play great defense… early

It’s fitting that the final home game in Year 3 of the Mike Bloomgren era started out how it did. After a quick three-and-out by the Rice defense, the offense took the ball and delivered on its’ Intellectual Brutality mantra.

Rice marched down the field on 20 plays, going 62 yards, converting multiple third down and fourth down attempts en route to a field goal and an early 3-0 lead. In the process, the Owls burned more than 12 minutes off the clock.

UAB got the ball, went three-and-out again, and the same sequence transpired. Rice crept down the field, this time aided by a few penalties from UAB, and tacked on another field goal. This one followed an eight-play, 35-yard drive that took 4:35 off the clock.

Secondary shows leaks

The strong start turned sour when UAB started to connect on some deep shots. UAB Quarterback Tyler Johnston was able to do what Marshall quarterback Grant Wells was not and the results were jarring to a defense that had just pitched a shutout seven days ago.

Rice was physical along the line of scrimmage, but they were surprised downfield too many times. Those three big plays, one for 54-yards, another for 63-yards and one more for 42-yards, were directly responsible for all of the Blazers’ points.

In many ways, the game showed eerie similarities to the matchup between these teams in Birmingham last season. In that game Johnson threw touchdown passes of 46-yards, 36-yards and 57-yards. All positive momentum the Owls’ had gained early faded with each successive bomb.

The passing game lacks consistency

Jovoni Johnson threw for 86 yards against Marshall. He threw for 161 yards on Saturday against UAB before leaving in the fourth quarter with an injury. In comparison, Mike Collines threw for 242, 233 and 327 yards in his three outings as the starter.

To be fair, Johnson never had the benefit of playing alongside team captain and leading receiver Austin Trammell, but the lack of any downfield presence completely siphoned the big play potential from this offense.

Rice can run the ball effectively and control the game, but without the ability to threaten a defense over the top, you wind up where they did midway through the second quarter: trailing 7-6 despite outgaining their opponents and racking up more than 16 minutes of possession to the Blazers six minutes.

Committing to your identity as a smashmouth, run-the-ball football team is one thing. Not being able to consistently pick up yards through the air when you need to is another. Collins showed this team can do it. Now they need to find a way to get it done no matter who is taking snaps.

So Close

A win on Saturday would have secured Rice football a winning record in conference play. Instead, the Owls’ strange five-game slate officially came to an end on Saturday with a loss to divisional winner UAB.

This season won’t (and shouldn’t) be remembered for its tough finale. But the lack of a bowl berth that was one win away will serve as a reminder that although this team has come a long way, they have some work to do before they get to where they want to be.

Were it not for an unbelievably bad bounce against Middle Tennessee, Rice would have that opportunity to play in a bowl game this year. This team was good enough to be postseason bound. And they came pretty close to doing so. The ball (literally) didn’t bounce their way.

There will be plenty of time to dig through the strange happenings of this year. Along the way, the Owls bludgeoned Southern Miss and blanked Marshall, two notable road wins. Now, Rice football will turn its attention to the Early Signing Period, which begins Wednesday. Rice currently has a Top 5 class in Conference USA.

Digging deeper (Subscribers only)

Every week we’ll have a stat, storyline or key learning from the game reserved for our subscribers.

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 Film Room 2020: Marshall Review

By

Rice Football shocked Marshall last Saturday, shutting out the Herd in their own house. We take a look at how it happened in this week’s film room.

HOW ‘BOUT THEM OWLS, Y’ALL? I hope you’re all still riding as high as I am after a potential program-defining win for this team and coaching staff. With apologies to my hometown Blazers, I’m devoting this week’s Rice Football Film Room to the Marshall win; for more on UAB, go check Matt and Taylor McHargue on Inside the Hedges tonight or tune into The Roost Podcast on Thursday.

Subscriber content.<br /> Please login to see the full post or visit our Patreon page.

With Saturday’s win fueled by—surprise!—a dominant performance by the defense, we’ll focus on that side of the ball.

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