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Rice Women’s Basketball splits with Marshall, loses perfect C-USA record

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Rice women’s basketball saw their perfect run come to an end, suffering their first conference loss in a road split at Marshall.

Any physical or psychological toll exacted on the Rice women’s basketball team by the events in Houston this week was not apparent in their series opening win against Marshall on Saturday. Almost immediately, the Owls jumped out to a 10-0 lead, then grew that advantage to 33-15 at the half. Led by Lauren Schwartz and Nancy Mulkey, Rice cruised through the opener with ease.

The Sunday finale was closer, but there wasn’t too much reason for concern until the floor seemingly dropped out from beneath them. Rice fell behind 13-6, but stormed back on a 21-3 run to regain control and walk into halftime with a comfortable 31-23 lead.

Marshall edged Rice in the third quarter by a point, but everything seemed to be working well up until the point when India Bellamy made an early fourth quarter layup to give Rice a nine-point advantage with just over nine minutes to play. Rice would go on to lose by 12, their first conference loss in more than a calendar year.

The Herd outscored Rice 18-0 in the final 3:53 and 23-2 in the final nine minutes of the fourth quarter. For a team that has accrued a certain amount of respect around the league for their ability to adjust in the second half and close things out, things just slipped away. Rice made two of their final 13 shots. Marshall made their last five, finishing perfect from the field over the final six minutes of regulation.

Going undefeated in conference play was never the goal. Head coach Tina Langley has always said as much. The focus for Rice has always been on getting better with each successive week. This team has always bounced back for the better. Now they’ll put that resiliency to the test once again.

Stat Corner | Just enough of an edge

The defense has been the Owls’ calling card ever since head coach Tina Langley took charge. Seeing Rice hold a team like Marshall to 15 points in the first 20 minutes of play on Saturday isn’t too surprising. Not anymore. That’s what this team does.

But Rice also holds the distinction of being the No. 1 shooting team in Conference USA. The Owls have outshot their opponents in every game this season, including in their two losses: a narrow defeat to Texas A&M and Sunday’s loss at Marshall. Even though they lose by double figures, Rice shot better from the field (42.9 percent vs Marshall’s 41.2 percent).

Up Next

Rice women’s basketball will play their final home series next weekend against Louisiana Tech. The Owls will host the Bulldogs on Friday and Saturday before finishing out their regular season scheduled against North Texas the following weekend.

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Rice Women’s Basketball posts thrilling return with dramatic sweep of WKU

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Rice women’s basketball returned to the court in triumphant fashion, posting two big wins over Western Kentucky.

There were no signs of rust when Rice women’s basketball returned to the court for the first time in four weeks. Injuries and COVID-19 impacts forced a prolonged pause for the Owls, but their resiliency was put on full display in their two-game sweep of Western Kentucky.

Both teams started fast on Friday, trading shot after shot in an exciting first half. Both teams shot better than 40 percent from the field. Western Kentucky’s Raneem Elgedaway and Rice’s Nancy Mulkey combined for 34 of the 69 (49 percent) of all points before the break.

Rice took over in the second half, ratcheting up the defense. They held Western Kentucky to 20 points in the final two quarters combined, sealing yet another conference win.

The second game was another highly contested battle. Rice led for most of the game before Western Kentucky pulled ahead with a thrilling fourth quarter run. When push came to shove, Rice wouldn’t be denied. A six-point deficit with 3:41 to play was erased thanks to three huge triples from Katelyn Crosthwait. Rice would ice the game with their defense and earn the sweep.

Player Spotlight | Lauren Schwartz

Rice took the lead in the third quarter of Friday’s game but Western Kentucky did not go quietly. The Hilltoppers came close to a few fourth quarter runs, but Schwartz slammed the door with one of her most clutch shooting performances of the season.

Schwartz scored the Owls’ final eight points, connecting on two three-pointers to ward off any notions of a Hilltopper comeback. She only finished with five points on Saturday, but her five rebounds and three blocks helped paved the way for another Rice win.

Stat Corner | Locking down the third quarter

There may not be a better third quarter coach in college basketball than Rice women’s basketball head coach Tina Langley. No matter the situation or the stakes, her teams are always ready when the second half whistle blows. On Friday, Rice turned a one-point halftime deficit into an eight-point fourth-quarter lead. One more big shot to start the fourth turned a close game into a double-digit difference.

Western Kentucky outscored Rice by one point in the third quarter on Saturday, but the Owls never lost their rhythm. They outrebounded WKU and shot a better percentage from the field.

Winning the third quarter doesn’t win basketball games. Still, when a team that plays the level of fundamentally sound, physical defense that Rice does enterers the fourth quarter with a lead, they’re hard to stop.

It’s probably no coincidence their only loss of the season, a four-point defeat on the road against a ranked Texas A&M squad, was one of the rare outings when Rice was outscored in the third period. Western Kentucky came close on Saturday but still couldn’t outdo Rice down the stretch.

Up Next

The final scheduled road series of the season looms next weekend for Rice basketball. They’ll hit the road one more time to take on Marshall in Huntington, WV. The Thundering Herd entered the weekend in the middle of the pack in the East. Like the Owls, the Herd have had multiple series postponed over the course of the past month.

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Rice Women’s Basketball: COVID-19 forces second pair of postponements

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Rice Women’s Basketball remains on pause, missing its second weekend of action. When can the Owls return and what is at stake when they do?

Last week marked the first time Rice Athletics had initiated a postponement for a scheduled competition. Now, the Rice Women’s Basketball has postponed their third and fourth contests, delaying this coming weekend’s series against North Texas. Because of the arrangement of the schedule, every weekend off bumps two games off the docket.

Rice (10-1, 6-0) enters the weekend atop Conference USA West in winning percentage (1.00) and wins (six). The Owls can’t fall behind in the percentage column without playing and suffering their first conference defeat, but not returning to the court in the somewhat near future could put their No. 1 overall seed in jeopardy.

Unlike the football championship, there are no established quotas to make the conference tournament field. UAB had to play one more game during the final week of the regular season to fulfill those requirements. Missing too many weekends won’t disqualify Rice from the tournament. But, seeding is not guaranteed.

According to a source familiar with the revised procedures, a team must play within four games of the average number of games completed by conference members during the regular season to be eligible for a first round bye.

Rice has played six league games to this point and 11 total games. Without playing this weekend they’ll be roughly two games behind both measures. That’s well within the window stipulated, but losing additional weekends could push the Owls’ closer to the line than they’d prefer.

No verdict has been given to this point on when any postponed games would be rescheduled. If football did indeed set a precedent, one would assume those added games would be decided in the next few weeks. There are only four more scheduled weekends of conference play once February arrives. Until then, we sit and wait, hoping for a safe return to competition and uncertain of what the future holds.

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Rice Athletics experiences first self-initiated COVID-19 postponement

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The first self-initiated COVID-19 postponement occurred at South Main this week. Through the ups and downs, Rice Athletics is battling COVID-19 well.

Rice Athletics issued its first self-initiated COVID-19 postponement on Tuesday afternoon. The Owls were forced to defer a set of Rice women’s basketball games originally scheduled for this weekend “due to a positive COVID-19 test within the program and related contact tracing”.

That postponement represents the first time Rice has had to back out of an athletic contest since the Owls kicked off their 2020-2021 athletic year on Oct. 24, 2020 against Middle Tennessee, 87 days prior.

Rice has been on the opposite end of those dour phone calls on numerous occasions. Rice has three football games postponed by COVID-19 tests and contact tracing by their opponents this fall. The women’s basketball team lost games against UT Arlington and Texas Southern. The men’s basketball team missed out on the marquee non-conference game: the Bayou Bucket against Houston.

Altogether Rice has played 30 games (not counting six postponements) over the last three months without being the offending party. That streak ends on Friday.

More: Conference USA COVID-19 Postponement Tracker 

The Rice women’s basketball team was thin on numbers before COVID-19 had any impact this week. The Owls played seven out of a maximum of 15 allowable scholarship players in their most recent contest, a road win against Old Dominion. The team found ways to keep winning, but simply did not have the bodies to afford to lose any more players. Even still, they lead Conference USA with a 10-1 (6-0) record.

The way Rice Athletics has handled COVID-19 hasn’t been perfect. But through rigorous contact tracing and safety protocols, the Owls have made it longer than most every college program in the nation before bowing out of any games. They’ve given their athletes their best chance to compete.

Volleyball, soccer and baseball will all begin soon. Cases continue to climb in the Houston area. The degree of difficulty will only rise from here. But so far, it’s been (relatively) smooth sailing at South Main. Here’s hoping they can keep it up.

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Rice Women’s Basketball 2021: ODU makes Owls work for series sweep

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Rice women’s basketball was pushed to the wire twice, but prevailed each time, earning an important road series sweep over Old Dominion.

Despite entering the weekend undefeated in conference play, Rice women’s basketball was weary of what waited for them inside the confines of Chartway Arena. The Old Dominion Monarchs broke the Owls’ 30-game conference winning streak on that very court a season ago. Both programs had experienced turnover since, but there were no illusions amongst either side: this was going to be a battle.

Old Dominion came out ready on Friday night, taking advantage of some early miscues from Rice and adding some second-chance points of their own. A 20-17 first quarter lead would not last long, though. Rice rallied quickly, exploding for 26 points in the second quarter to take an eight-point lead into halftime. Nancy Mulkey’s near-perfect sowing from the field proved to be more than enough to power the Owls to a game one victory.

Rice came out more composed in game two, earning an early lead and extending it to a 38-28 lead at halftime. This time it was Katelyn Crosthwait with three big three point makes to give the Owls some breathing room. But Old Dominion would not go quietly. The Monarchs retook the lead with their first bucket of the fourth quarter.

Then it was the Owls’ turn for a statement. Mulkey and Lauren Schwartz powered a late run, capped off by a Jasmine Smith three point shot to put Rice comfortably ahead in the final minutes. Old Dominion would try to extend the game, but Rice hit their free throws and finished off the road sweep.

Player Spotlight | Nancy Mulkey

A short bench meant the Owls would have to ask a lot from their star center. Mulkey came through in a big way, delivering 21 points and eight rebounds on Friday with an encore of  25 points and five rebounds on Saturday. She was essential on both sides of the court, prevent the Monarchs from ever getting into a rhythm for two long and making what felt like every shot she took.

Mulkey began the Friday game 8-for-8 from the field before finishing 10-of-13. She was 10-of-16 from the field on Saturday, averaging 76.9 percent from the floor in the series. If she’s shooting at that clip, it’s opens up the offense. And when Rice can score, their defense will do the rest. That was the formula against Old Dominion and it’s probably not the last we see of it this spring.

Stat Corner | The few, the proud, the undefeated

NCAA scholarship restrictions put the cap at 15 players available per team each season. Eight players saw action for the Owls on Friday night. Only seven played on Saturday. That’s a far cry from the 10 players that suited up and got on the court for Rice in their season opener against Houston Baptist.

Injuries played a part in what became a rather lean contingent against Old Dominion. Nevertheless, the Owls persevered. Even when tasked with playing two games in less than 24 hours, they found a way to dig deep and finish in the fourth quarter.

For the first time this season, Rice was outscored in the third quarter in both games of a conference series. On both occasions this weekend, Rice answered by outscoring Old Dominion in the fourth quarter and held on for two important road victories.

Up Next

Rice returns home next weekend to face UAB. The Blazers are in the middle of the pack in the West with a series win over Southern Miss and a series loss to North Texas. This past weekend they were swept by Charlotte.

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