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Rice Women’s Basketball handles Houston in 2OT

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Rice women’s basketball edged out crosstown rival Houston in a double-overtime thriller, moving to 8-0 on the season and 4-0 at home.

After victories over TCU and Texas A&M, Rice women’s basketball entered Saturday’s contest against Houston with eyes on a non-conference Lone Star sweep. It wouldn’t be easy, but the Owls would eventually prevail, taking down Houston in double overtime.

Rice would be tested from the start. Hoston scored first and opened up a seven-point lead in the first five minutes of play. Both teams would exchange baskets through the remainder of the first quarter as the Owls cut their deficit down to one point near the beginning of the second frame. That was when Houston made their run.

The Cougars went on a 9-0 sprint, opening up a 10-point lead, the largest by either team in the game. Rice went into halftime trailing by double-digits and in need of a spark to maintain their perfect record.

That second-half spark came in the form of Destiny Jackson. The senior guard exploded down the stretch, scoring 12 points in the third and fourth quarters. She knocked each of her four shots from the field in that time and was perfect on four free throw attempts.

Rice trimmed their 10-point deficit down to two in the third quarter and took the lead for the very first time with 5:14 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Owls would have a chance to win the game at the buzzer, but a Malia Fisher runner in the lane bounced off the irons and the game went to overtime.

Emotions were rampant in the extra minutes. Rice had three players foul out (Malia Fisher, Katelyn Crosthwait and Trinity Gooden). Houston lost two to fouls (Tatyana Hill and Kamryn Jones). All that would matter though, was how the team finished on the court.

An Austin three-pointer followed by a pair of free throws from Jackson gave Rice an 8-point lead in the second overtime. That proved to be a large enough advantage as Rice thwarted one final attempt at the buzzer to secure the win, the first overtime victory of head coach Lindsay Edmon’s career.

“Every win is a great win. Overtime wins are great because that gives you the confidence that, if we’re in this position again, we can say, ‘hey we’ve done this before,” Edmonds said. “Every win is a great man. I’m really excited about us protecting home court again and just taking care of business.”

Spotlight | Destiny Jackson

Jackson scored a season-high 33 points on Saturday, leading all scorers in the game. Through much of the game, it felt like she couldn’t miss, converting on 12-of-14 shots, her highest shooting percentage in a game in which she took more than two shots this season.

“Her teammates believe in her. I believe in her and she believes in herself. And I think that is just an unbelievable thing to have. As a point guard at her size, her ability to score the basketball but also find her teammates when she needs to. I thought she did a tremendous job,” Edmonds said.

“She’s a really hard matchup at point guard and when she has her mindset that she can get to the rim, she can get to the rim as much as she wants.”

Regulation would have been enough to reach her season-best, but her contributions in overtime were massive. She also added seven rebounds and five assists, the latter of which led the team.

Final Box | Rice 91 – Houston 88 (2OT)

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball has a string of home games coming up that runs through the end of the year. They’ll host Sam Houston on Friday, Dec. 16 in their final non-conference game before entering conference play with games against Middle Tennessee (Tues, Dec. 20), Western Kentucky (Thur, Dec. 29), and UTEP (Sat, Dec. 31).

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Rice Women’s Basketball staves off TCU, stays perfect

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Rice women’s basketball continues its early-season success, staving off a late rally from TCU to move to 7-0 on the year.

Rice women’s basketball couldn’t have gotten off to a much better start on Friday night against TCU. The Owls shot a blazing 58.3 percent from the floor, jumping out to a 17-8 lead. Ashlee Austin led the way with an austere 4-for-4 start and a team-high nine points, setting the tone for the team moving forward.

TCU got their feet underneath them in the second quarter, but Rice continued to hold them at bay. The Frogs trimmed their deficit to five points to start the frame before the Owls’ rocketed their advantage back to 10.

The margin wiggled a little bit to each side throughout the period, but Rice always seemed to have an answer for every TCU basket, never allowing more than two consecutive scores without a response.

Things really wouldn’t escalate until the final minutes of the fourth quarter when TCU made a late run. Austin had just put Rice up by 11 when TCU mounted a 7-0 run, culminating in a three-pointer with 49 seconds on the clock to cut the Owls’ lead to four. Rice would tighten up, make their free throws and pull away, maintaining their perfect start and moving to 7-0 on the young season.

The 7-0 start is the best in program history, with that standard being raised further with each successive victory.

“I think this year can just be amazing, but we’ll take it one game at a time and the next one’s the most important [one] and we can’t get ahead of ourselves and we can’t think that we’ve arrived,” head coach Lindsay Edmonds said.

“We got to keep fighting every single day and know now that that target is on our back even more than it already was. I’m really proud of that. Pressure is a privilege and they’ve worked really hard to have that target on their back and now we got to work even harder to keep it there.”

Spotlight | Team Depth

Five different players had four or more points in the fourth quarter, by far the most potent and diverse frame of the evening for the Owls in the most pressure-packed situation. Coach Edmonds mentioned that’s exactly how she wants this team to operate.

“[On] a different night, a different person can step up and when we are so balanced, it’s hard for opponents to scout against us. It’s hard to know who we’re going to go through. We have plays for everybody that we want to take advantage of. I think that’s our best attribute, how deep we are and how balanced we are,” she said.

Three starters finished in double figures and eight different players had at least three points with 10 Owls seeing the court in the 40-minute contest. Rice women’s basketball has depth and they continue to use it to their advantage.

Final Box | Rice 68 – TCU 58

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball has another important home game against a Lone Star State foe. After posting victories over Texas A&M and TCU, Rice hosts crosstown rival Houston on Saturday, Dec. 10. Tip-off for that game is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on ESPN+.

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Rice Women’s Basketball knocks off Texas A&M, stays perfect

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Rice Women’s Basketball remains unbeaten, upsetting Texas A&M to move to 6-0. It’s the Owls’ first win over the Aggies since 2006.

On the final leg of a four-game road trip, Rice women’s basketball faced perhaps its toughest test yet. Texas A&M was unbeaten on their home court this season and the Owls had just three victories over the Aggies in College Station in program history.

If there were a game to experience some nerves, this might have been it. But head coach Lindsay Edmonds and her team never blinked. Rice opened the game with a quick 10-4 run, putting the Aggies on notice from the jump: this was going to be a close one.

Texas A&M battled back to tie the game at 25-25 at the break, then they went on the offensive. The Aggies scored the first eight points after halftime, pushing the Owls to the brink before India Bellamy and Malia Fisher trimmed the deficit back down to four points. Then the game was on.

More: Rice Women’s Basketball Season Preview

Rice tied the game gain in the final minute of the third quarter, entering the final period ahead by one thanks to a layup from Destiny Jackson. The fourth quarter belonged to the Owls. Katelyn Crosthwait knocked down two threes while Shelby Hayes made a shot and a free throw of her own to eventually push the Rice advantage to nine points. It proved to be enough and Rice hung on for the big win.

“This is a group that played a lot of minutes last year, so I think they had that confidence and they knew they’d won in close games before,” “I felt like they weren’t worried about was across the chest of the opponents. They were just playing basketball”

Player Spotlight | India Bellamy

On an afternoon where so many did their part, Bellamy’s contributions stood out.Β In just her second appearance of the season, she was third among all scorers with 11 points, knocking down 5-of-10 shots from the field and adding one free throw.

Final Box | Rice 66 – Texas A&M 58

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball finally gets to return home this coming week where they’ll host a string of Texas teams. On Friday, TCU comes to town for a 7:00 p.m. game (streamed on ESPN+) and Houston follows on Saturday, Dec. 10.

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Rice Women’s Basketball speeds past Texas Southern, stays perfect

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Following a pair of close wins on the road, Rice women’s basketball put away Texas Southern with haste to remain undefeated on the season.

Katelyn Crosthwait made the first shot she took, a three-pointer to give Rice women’s basketball the early lead on the road against Texas Southern. The Tigers would manage one free throw in response before the visiting Owls scored six more points, pushing their lead to 9-1 in the first two minutes of action.

If there were ever a moment for Texas Southern to turn things around, it would have been at the beginning of the second quarter. Trailing by six, Texas Southern secured a rebound following a miss from Jazzy Owens-Barnett, but then they turned the ball back over to Rice. Ashlee Austin knocked down a layup and the route was on.

More: Rice Women’s Basketball Season Preview

Rice went on to outscore the home team 20-6 in that second quarter, holding Texas Southern to 2-of-13 from the field in that frame while the Rice shot a blistering 50 percent from the field. That would have been impressive in itself had the Owls not followed it up with a blazing 9-of-12, 75 percent showing in the third quarter to extend their advantage even further.

At that point, both squads emptied their benches and played out the stretch. 12 different Owls appeared in the game, making room for freshmen like Owens-Barnett, Dominque Ennis and Shelby Hayes to each see 12+ minutes of action. After a series of close fourth quarters, it was nice for everyone to breath and let the young guns play. They’ll be needed as the season progresses.

Player Spotlight | Malia Fisher

For the third time in five games, Fisher recorded a double-double. That shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point. The talented sophomore is averaging 15 points and 11.4 boards per game, both marks that lead the team.

On Wednesday, she sent the Owls into a short Thanksgiving break with relative ease, wrapping up the double-double before halftime. She would only be called upon to play 27 minutes given the Owls’ sizable lead, otherwise this grand day could have been even grander.

Final Box | Rice 76 – Texas Southern 49

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice women’s basketball wraps up a four-game road trip on Sunday when they head up to College Station to play Texas A&M. The Aggies are 4-1 and share one common open with the Owls, Texas Southern, who A&M beat 67-54. This Lone Star battle has the potential to get interesting.

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Rice Basketball Roundup: MBB over GA Southern, WBB over Pacific

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

Rice Basketball

Rice basketball still has early season kinks to work through but got back in the win column on Friday with a hard-fought victory against Georgia Southern.

With defense still very much a work in progress, anything is possible. What might have been a comfortable home-court advantage for Rice basketball did not last on Friday night against Georgia Southern. The Owls watched an eight-point lead vanish in the moments before halftime, ceding a 9-0 run by the visitors to fall behind 48-47 at the break.

As the three-pointing shooting started to slow in the second half, Rice turned to Max Fiedler in the post. He was extremely effective, making his shots count and scoring all of his nine points in the second half. Rice retook the lead and stretched it to as many as 17 points, hanging on to win a wild one at home.

Final Box | Rice 88 – Georgia So. 71

Key takeaway | The shots will start falling

At some point, the shots were going to start falling. Off nights from the field are an unfortunate cost of doing business for a team that relies on the three-ball as much as Rice basketball does. That said, nights like Friday serve as a reminder that any night can be a good shooting night.

Rice hit seven of their first 10 three and 10-of-23 from distance for the evening. Their previous high in triples in a game this year had been 14 against St. Thomas. Their high for the entirety of last season was 15 against Houston Baptist. If that’s any indication, even better nights from distance are coming and a good (not quite great) night at the office was enough to get the win.

Up Next: vs Western Michigan – Saturday, Nov. 19 at 5:00 p.m.

Rice Women's Basketball

Rice women’s basketball kept their perfect start to the season rolling with another road win, this time over Pacific in a relatively comfortable fashion.

Not long after a double-digit road win over Saint Mary’s, Rice women’s basketball took to the court at Pacific a few days later and produced a similar result. The Owls jumped out to an early lead behind a strong defensive showing, holding Pacific to 25 percent shooting from the floor in the first quarter. That enabled Rice to amass a 10-point lead at the break.

It wouldn’t be easy, though. Rice held serve in the third quarter, but Pacific came alive in the final frame. They outscore the Owls 28-24 in the fourth, making 5-of-9 from deep, but it wouldn’t be enough. Rice would make the defensive stands they needed to and hit their free throws, moving to 4-0 on the season with the win.

Final Box | Rice 89 – Pacific 79

Key takeaway | The defense is coming

Following the Owls’ season-opening game against SFA, coach Edmonds mentioned she’d hoped for a better defensive showing, giving up 77 points was too much in her highest. The team responded by cutting their points against total to 69 (vs Abilene Christian), then to 64 (at St. Mary’s).

The Owls were trending that way after holding their foes to 34 points in the first half, but a second-half barrage pushed Pacific’s final total to 79 points, several points of which came in catch-up mode with the Owls shooting free throws.

That total was never going to continue to fall forever, but it’s pretty clear the message was received. The defense has been much better, particularly in key moments. And they’re probably not done improving that facet of their game just yet either.

Up Next: at Texas Southern – Wednesday, Nov. 23 at 2:00 p.m.

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