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Rice Basketball Roundup: MBB and WBB each fall to LA Tech

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Both Rice basketball teams were in action against Louisiana Tech. Here’s a brief rundown of how the men and women faired and what’s next for both.

Rice Basketball

Rice basketball was on the wrong end of 14 lead changes in a back-and-forth affair, falling at home to Louisiana Tech on Thursday.

There was little separation between Rice basketball and Louisiana Tech on Thursday night at Tudor Fieldhouse. From the opening tip until the waning moments of the game, the two teams traded barbs. The Owls led by as many as nine before the Bulldogs powered back to tie the game for the seventh time with just under nine minutes to play in the second half.

Travie Evee and Quincy Olivari, the Owls’ leading scorers, were tremendous, combining for 44 points and eight three-pointers. Evee’s final heave of regulation was tremendous, falling through at the buzzer to force overtime.

Louisiana Tech would connect on 6-of-8 shots in the extra period and both three pointers. Rice came within two points of equalizing, but missed two crucial free throws down the stretch before running out of time.

Final Box | Rice 72 – UTEP 67

Key takeaway | Defense no longer optional

Rice basketball dubbed itself “Green Light U” last year in reference to their willingness to shoot the ball early and often. That’s been a staple of their game since head coach Scott Pera arrived on campus. It’s been the defensive side that, so far, has been the missing component in the Owls’ arsenal.

No one is going to bang the gavel and declare Rice a defensive juggernaut just yet, but the frequency with which individuals continue to make significant defensive contributions is increasing. Even after an up-and-down first half, they came up big plays in key moments.

“We did make some plays when we had to, yeah, some big ones,” Pera said. “Because these kids are playing hard. They’re trying like heck and they’ve gotten better at a lot of those things.

Cameron Sheffield had two blocks and 11 defensive rebounds. Seryee Lewis forced a kick out pass, then corralled the rebound on the ensuing deep three. Max Fiedler forced a shot clock violation in the final 90 seconds with a strong position in the lane. Little by little, these individual moments are beginning to cascade.

Ultimately though, it was not enough. Rice doesn’t get to OT without some of those big defensive plays, but they’re going to need more of them to finish off games like this.

Up Next: vs Middle Tennessee – Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 7:00 p.m.

Rice Women's Basketball

Rice women’s basketball never got it in gear on the road, falling to Louisiana Tech in Ruston, falling to 1-3 in conference play.

Aside from a single three from Katelyn Crosthwait and seven points from Ashlee Austin, things got off to a rocky start in Ruston for Rice women’s basketball on Thursday night. Crosthwait and Austin were the only Owls to score in the opening quarter as the team fell behind 20-10 on a meager 26.7 percent shooting from the floor.

Rice chipped away a few points from that double-digit deficit in the second quarter and a few more in the third. After a rough beginning, they trailed Louisiana Tech by five entering the final frame and would have their chance to recover but the shots just weren’t falling. The Owls started 1-for-6 from the field, going over seven minutes without a field goal in the fourth quarter alone.

“We dug a deep hole and even though we fought and won the last three quarters, it was just too much to overcome,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said.

They were able to extend the game on free throws and get within three in the final seconds, but things never quite clicked and Rice women’s basketball is now 1-3 in conference play.

Final Box | LA Tech 79 – Rice 74

Key takeaway | Mid season slump is real, but not irreversible

You wouldn’t know it from watching their start to conference play, but this team began the season 9-0 and blazed through a couple of Power 5 programs in-state to get there. It’s been tough sledding ever since.

Unfortunately for the Owls, every game remaining is a conference game and the stakes will continue to raise with each successive contest. Non-conference wins won’t count in their quest for a top seed in the C-USA Tournament. They know that, though. And they’ve shown the ability to course correct before, even within their winning streak.

Oddly enough, this program went through a similar stretch last season. Edmonds sent the team home after an 0-5 start and they came back and finished 8-4 in their final 12 regular season games.

Up Next: at Middle Tennessee – Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 6:00 p.m.

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Rice Basketball Roundup: MBB and WBB sweep UTEP

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Both Rice basketball teams were in action on New Year’s Eve. Here’s a brief rundown of how the men and women faired and what’s next for both.

Rice Basketball

Rice basketball capped off a 2-0 road trip on Saturday, taking down UTEP in overtime. It was their ninth win in their last 10 games.

Days removed from a big road win at Western Kentucky, Rice basketball found itself in an early hole in El Paso against UTEP. The Miners were up 20-15 just past the halfway mark of the first half. Not only did Rice do enough to narrow the deficit, the Owls’ finally got their shots to fall, going on a 16-0 run over the next six minutes and entering halftime with a 32-25 lead.

Rice was able to hold UTEP at bay for much of the second frame, taking their advantage to as many as 15 points. It wouldn’t last long, though. UTEP responded with a 12-0 run and then, with Rice up by 12 with 3:23 to go, UTEP finished the half on a 14-2 run to force overtime. On a day which Rice missed seven free throws, they made enough down the stretch in OT to secure the win with Quincy Olivari delivering the final pair.

Final Box | Rice 72 – UTEP 67

Key takeaway | If Rice can win games like this… watch out

Quincy Olivari and Travis Evee are the most dangerous shooters the Owls have. They went 8-of-34 from the field on Saturday… and Rice still won. The Owls have quietly won nine of their last 10 with the only loss in that timeframe coming to a Top 10 Texas team in overtime. Rice has proven they can take the nation’s best to extra minutes and win on the road in conference play, twice in one weekend.

“Our kids had resolved. They dealt with adversity. They made plays when they had to,” head coach Scott Pera said.

Pera has this team playing great basketball as they enter the meat of conference play. Already with 11 wins, they’re five wins shy of matching Pera’s best mark at Rice (16) with 17 games left to play before the Conference USA Tournament.

Up Next: vs Louisiana Tech – Thursday, Jan. 5 at 7:00 p.m.

Rice Women's Basketball

Rice women’s basketball took charge of a close game late, powering past UTEP to earn their first conference win of the season.

It wasn’t until past the 4-minute mark in the third quarter that the margin between Rice women’s basketball and the UTEP Miners exceeded five points. The close game had reached a six-point UTEP advantage courtesy of a three-pointer, which proceeded a quick Rice rally to tie the game by the time the quarter reached its conclusion.

Then Rice put on the clamps. UTEP made two shots from the floor in the fourth quarter on 22.2 percent shooting. Rice held them scoreless in the final 3:05, meanwhile, Rice scored the final eight points of the game, ending with a nine-point advantage, the largest by either team in the game.

Final Box | Rice 62 – UTEP 53

Key takeaway | Winning on defense

Head coach Lindsay Edmonds was quick to give much of the credit to the Owls’ work on defense. “I thought we hung our hats more on defense and rebounding this game, which is what we’ve been focusing on since we dropped the last one,” she said. Rice did outrebound UTEP eight to six in the pivotal fourth quarter, finishing just shy of even on the game (UTEP had 32 boards to Rice’s 30.)

Rice held UTEP to 34.6 percent shooting for the game, their best defensive showing since holding Texas Southern to 23.3 percent shooting on November 23. The 53 points allowed was the second fewest scored on Rice this year, better than only Texas Southern’s 49 points. It wasn’t a perfect defensive performance, but it was much better than the Owls have had in recent weeks, and most importantly, it was best when it mattered the most.  

Up Next: at Louisiana Tech – Thursday, Jan. 5 at 6:00 p.m.

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Rice Athletics: Top 10 Moments from 2022

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2022 was filled with highs and lows for Rice Athletics. The Roost picked out 10 moments that stood out the most along the way.

10. Rice Swimming wins Open Water Title

Ella Dyson led the way for Rice swimming in Open Water Championship, finishing the 5K course in first place, becoming the first Rice swimmer to win an individual championship in the history of the event. It was enough to propel the Owls to a team title at the event, its first since 2019.

9. Men’s Tennis boasts Freshman of the Year

Haoyuan Huang went 17-5 record in singles in his first year in college tennis. His 13-3 mark at the first line was the best mark at the top position in the lineup by a Rice freshman since former All-American Richard Barker was 15-8 in 2001.

8. Men’s basketball makes a big recruiting splash

Winning on the recruiting front is the easiest way to secure wins on the court down the line, that’s what made the commitment of 4-star guard Keanu Dawes so massive this year. To earn his pledge, Rice had to beat out offers from Texas A&M, Texas Utah, BYU and Oklahoma State. Needless to say, he’s going to be a difference-maker when he arrives on campus in 2023.

7. Women’s basketball upsets Texas A&M

Rice Athletics had several big singular game wins this year but when it came to wins over teams from the Lone Star State, what the women’s basketball team did against the Maroon and White in November takes the cake. The Owls beat the Aggies in College Station for just the fourth time in program history.

6. Men’s basketball upsets UAB

Speaking of upsets, the men earned one of their most notable victories under current head coach Scott Pera way back in January, knocking off UAB — a top 50 KenPom team and a C-USA giant — at Tudor Fieldhouse. Pera was almost speechless. “I don’t remember one bigger than this,” he said at the time.

5. Rice soccer goes undefeated in conference

In 10 regular season matches, Rice soccer went a sterling 9-0-1, an undefeated record with just one tie in their final conference game of the season. The finish tied the 2017 team for the Owls’ best conference record in program history.

4. Women’s Basketball starts 9-0

A year after taking over a program in transition, head coach Lindsay Edmonds has turned Rice women’s basketball into a force. Edmonds and Co. accomplished what no coach had ever done before with a perfect nonconference record and she did it without eventual WNBA draft selection Erica Ogwumike or star center Nancy Mulky, who dazzled in the Owls’ most recent run of dominance on the court.

3. Rice football finally goes bowling

The expressed goal of the 2022 Rice football season was for it to not finish before December, specifically for the Owls to punch a ticket to a bowl game for the first time since 2014. While the Lending Tree Bowl didn’t end well, it was a meaningful milestone for the program as it wraps up its final season in Conference USA.

2. Rice volleyball sends off WKU in C-USA Tournament Finale

Rice and Western Kentucky have been the gold standard in Conference USA for quite a while, but the Owls hadn’t quite figured out how to climb into the driver’s seat in the conference with WKU in the way. The Hilltoppers defeated the Owls in the C-USA Championship match five times since 2014, including the past three seasons — at least until Rice notched the victory in their final C-USA Tournament game ever. How sweet it was.

1. Rice Athletics makes AAC invite official

After the announcement that Rice would be headed to a new conference in 2021, things started to crystalize this past summer when an official date was announced. On June 15, Rice confirmed its AAC membership would begin on July 1, 2023. No longer just an idea, it was officially official. Rice is AAC bound with some sports already completing their final C-USA contests.

Honorable Mentions…

How about you? Which of these moments from Rice Athletics did you enjoy the most? Cutting this down to 10 was challenging. Which Rice Athletics events should be added to the list?

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Kings of the Hill: Rice Basketball knocks off WKU

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Rice basketball fell behind early, but caught fire when it mattered, upsetting Western Kentucky to earn a big road win.

A season ago, Rice basketball gave Western Kentucky a good half of a game at E.A. Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, KY. The second half, though, was all Hilltoppers, who seemed to have another gear the Owls just could not match. Rice got their road rematch with WKU on Thursday night and while it was indeed a tale of two halves, Rice made sure it was the second stanza that shouted the loudest.

It wouldn’t start pretty, though. Western Kentucky opened the game with a 10-0 explosion. With six minutes left in the first half, Rice trailed 29-16. The defense had held in key moments, but the offense hadn’t found its shooting stroke and was held without a field goal in the first 10 minutes of play. Nothing was falling… until it was.

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Trailing by 10 points at the break, Rice took off. The Owls shot a dismal 21.9 percent from the floor in the first half, making just five of 19 from three. “You’re not going to beat anyone shooting 21 percent,” head coach Scott Pera quipped post game, noting one important caveat “[In] previous years when we didn’t shoot well, it affected our defense. This group is different.”

Still in the game because of that defense, Rice started to catch fire. In the second half, Rice shot 58.1 percent from the floor and made nine of 15 three-pointers, including a sequence in which Travis Evee, Quincy Olivari and Cameron Sheffield went back-to-back-to-back to put Rice in front by seven under six minutes to play.

Western Kentucky lost their leading scorer Dayvion McKnight, but managed to tie the game up with 90 seconds to go. Rice would go up by one before Travis Evee made the defensive play of the night, stealing back the basketball and knocking down a pair of three throws to take a three-point lead with under 10 seconds to play. Rice would hold on and clinch Pera’s first ever win over the Hilltoppers.

Player Spotlight | Travis Evee

Part of last season’s prolific scoring duo with Carl Pierre, Evee had taken somewhat of a secondary spot behind Quincy Olivari early on this season. Olivari had been hot and Evee had done his job, getting the ball in his hands. But it always felt like just a matter of time before Evee — who hadn’t reached the 20-point mark since November 21 — was going to go off again.

Evee led all scorers with 24 points and was a perfect 8-for-8 from the charity stripe, including a pair of game-sealing shots down the stretch. He also added six rebounds and five assists. It was his best performance of the season and the Owls wouldn’t have been able to do what they did without him on the court on Thursday night.

Final Box | Rice 81 – WKU 78

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball will finish 2022 with a New Year’s Eve tilt in the desert against UTEP, the second and final game of their current road trip. That game is scheduled for a 3:00 p.m. tip-off on CUSAtv.

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Rice Basketball Roundup: Owls sweep three-game home slate

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It was a good weekend for Rice basketball, who swept their three-game slate over five days to stay undefeated at Tudor Fieldhouse.

  • Thursday | Rice 92 – North American 54
  • Saturday | Rice 110 – Northwestern State 73
  • Monday | Rice 100 – Jarvis Christian 64

Frankly, Rice basketball took care of business this weekend against teams they should have beaten soundly. To some extent, that’s par for the course, but it was encouraging to see just how quickly they dispatched these three, particularly their Saturday win over Northwestern State.

The Demons entered that game 8-2 with a road win over No. 15 TCU and over the Owls’ former C-USA foe Southern Miss under their belts. Yet Rice romped easily at home.

Quincy Olivari was unstoppable, topping 17 points in all three contests, and he would have had many more had he come close to his normal complement of minutes. Max Fiedler had a double-double against Jarvis Christian and a season-high 22 points against Northwestern State. Travis Evee even got back on track, going 4-for-6 from three on Monday evening, scoring 14 points.

The Owls opened the benches in all three games, getting valuable minutes for younger players who — if past seasons are any indication — might very well be called upon for expanded minutes down the stretch.

Up Next | Full Schedule

Then next time Rice basketball takes the court they’ll be in the thick of Conference USA play. The Owls have already played one conference game, a strange mid-November road tilt against Middle Tennessee, which they lost. Up next after Christmas are road against at Western Kentucky (Thr, Dec. 29) and at UTEP (Sat, Dec. 31).

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