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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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Early deficit dooms Rice Women’s Basketball against Gonzaga

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Rice women’s basketball was unable to climb out of a massive early hole against Gonzaga, falling to the ranked Bulldogs at home.

The visiting Gonzaga Bulldogs were the No. 23 team in the country entering the game and gave every indication they belonged among the nation’s best from the star, opening their contest against Rice women’s basketball on a 15-0 run before Shelby Hayes broke their scoring streak nearly halfway through the first quarter.

Trailing by 15, the situation grew more dire as Zags shooter Eliza Hollingsworth delivered a career-best performance, matching her best-ever totals for points and three-pointers by the middle of the second quarter. That enabled the visitors to extend their lead to 21 before the Owls scratched the deficit down to 14 in the final minutes before halftime.

Rice was able to trim the hole to single digits in the final moments of the third quarter, leaning on a complete team effort on both sides of the court to get within seven points. After falling behind big early, to have the game in reach entering the fourth was encouraging, but the deficit would prove too big to overcome.

Gonzaga would do just enough offensively in the fourth quarter — including a pair of dagger three-pointers — to keep the game out of reach. Rice threatened, but could never close the gap, ultimately falling to 5-4 on the season.

Final Box | Gonzaga 80 – Rice 72

Key takeaway |  When the threes don’t fall

Rice women’s basketball is 4-1 when making at least eight threes this year and 1-3 when they don’t (they made three today on 18 attempts).  Their lone victory when they didn’t shoot the three particularly well came against Houston Christian, a team the Owls should be more than capable of handling regardless of how well their outside shooting fairs — Rice made 32.2 percent of their threes (6-for-21) in that game.

The Owls have had some career performances from long-range this year. Maya Bokunewicz tied the school record with seven triples against Saint Mary’s. Dominque Ennis had a personal best six threes against Texas Southern. When someone wasn’t lights out from deep, though, this team has struggled to find its groove offensively.

Finding a solution to that problem is becoming increasingly more important and Saturday’s third quarter might have served as one of the most tangible signs of progress yet. When Rice took possession for the first time in the period, they trailed by 16 points. They made just one three but entered the fourth quarter down by just nine.

It took some strain to get there, but Rice was able to attack the rim, get to the line a couple of times and make their foul shots. That’s a recipe for success, regardless of what’s happening from long range and it’s one Rice might need to lean on again in the near future if the cold streaks from three continue.

Up Next: vs Prairie View A&M (Sat. Dec 9)

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Rice Women’s Basketball rolls past TAMU-CC on the road

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Rice women’s basketball started fast and never let up, rolling past Texas A&M Corpus Christi on the road to improve to 5-3 on the season.

Before Texas A&M Corpus Christi had exhaled from the opening tip, Rice women’s basketball had a 9-0 lead. The visiting Owls wasted no time announcing their presence on the Islanders’ court, jumping out in front quickly thanks to the return of Malia Fisher and well-placed shots from Dominque Ennis and Shelby Hayes.

Staked to a near-double-digit lead, Rice expanded their cushion in the second quarter in which they shot 67 percent from the field including a trio of three-pointers. That lengthened the Owls’ advantage over the Islanders by a ten spot and sent Rice into halftime with a 56-28 advantage.

Both teams traded baskets after the break, but the result of the game was never really in doubt thanks to the Owls’ tremendous opening effort. Not only did Rice never trail in this game, they spent the majority of the second half with the game well out of reach. It was a dominant effort away from home and an extremely encouraging showing near the midway point of nonconference play.

Final Box | Rice 84 – Texas A&M Corpus Christi 56

Key takeaway | Winning away from home

The road had not been kind to Rice Women’s Basketball in this young season. The Owls sludged through a victory at Abilene Chrisitan in their first game away from Tudor Fieldhouse before dropping successive away contests, the first at TCU and the second at SFA.

This is a very similar team to the one that went undefeated in nonconference play a season ago, so the ability to win away from home is clearly there, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t clicking. Saturday’s performance against Texas A&M Corpus Christi served as a powerful reminder that the Owls still have what it takes to go into someone else’s gym and walk away with a win.

As cliched as it is, winning on the road is hard. The Owls were effective on offense, rebounded well and made their free throws. The defense was stingy, too. It wasn’t a perfect performance, but it was a respectable one and one that will be good enough to get the job done, more often than not.

Up Next: vs Gonzaga (Sat. Dec 9)

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Dominique Ennis, Rice Women’s Basketball drown TSU with threes

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Rice women’s basketball and Dominque Ennis exploded from long range, drowning Texas Southern in threes en route to a lopsided victory.

Rice women’s basketball returned home on Wednesday night in search of a bounce-back win following a disappointing road showing against SFA on Saturday. The Owls fell behind early against Texas Southern 6-2 but quickly composed themselves and fired back, tying the game a few minutes into the first quarter before amping up the intensity even further.

A 14-0 Rice run put the home team in front by double-digits. Texas Southern cut their deficit down to four in the second frame, but Destiny Jackson wasn’t going to allow it to slip any further. She scored 10 of the teams’ 12 points in the final five minutes of the half, propelling the Rice advantage back to 10 points at the half.

Texas Southern opened the third quarter with a free throw to get within nine, but that’s the closest the visitors would come for the remainder of the game. Dominque Ennis caught fire from long range and her teammates continued to get her open looks with the basketball.

Ennis’ career night helped spurt runs of 14-0, 9-0, 16-4 and 11-2. The lead ballooned past 20 midway through the third and Ennis and company just kept pouring it on. Back-to-back threes from Maya Bokunewicz put the Owls ahead by 30, ensuring a comfortable home win, the 700th victory in program history.

“It’s about us. This is an ‘us’ game. We wanted to be playing the best basketball we could be playing today,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “It wasn’t about what Texas Southern was doing or what the score was on the scoreboard.”

Final Box | Rice 74 – Texas Southern 44

What They’re Saying

“If feels good to get back in the win column. It feels good to be back at home. I thought we came out with a lot of energy and we saw a lot of energy for the majority of the game. And that’s the team that I know that we can be. That’s the team that we’re working to be every night. When we can play fast and when we can share the basketball the way we did, I think we have a really, really, really good team.” – Head coach Lindsay Edmonds

Key takeaway | Have a day, Dom

On a night without Malia Fisher, Rice women’s basketball was going to need someone else to step up. In some ways the phrase, “step up”, is an overused sports colloquialism, a trope coaches, broadcasters and writers alike lean on to suggest the necessity for a collective effort in the face of adversity.

Seldom does the conveyor really believe that one person will truly rise up and take the burden upon themselves. But that’s exactly what Ennis did on Wednesday night.

Ennis scored a career-high 25 points, connecting on a career-best six three-pointers. Tack on five assists, five boards and four steals and you have one of the most impressive stretches of basketball anyone in this program has produced so far this season.

“I think Dom’s capable of that every night,” Edmonds said. “I feel like Dom’s had a great summer. I feel like her overall confidence in the game has grown so much since last season and so it was kind of like, waiting for it. I think she’s had very solid games this season but this was definitely the breakout game of the season and what our expectations are of what she’s capable of. Very proud of her.”

Up Next: at Texas A&M Corpus Christi (Sat. Dec 2)

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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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