The source for Rice sports news

Rice Women’s Basketball runs out of gas vs North Texas

By

Rice Women’s Basketball played North Texas tight for 38 minutes before the Owls shooting struggles finally came home to roost.

For 38 minutes, Rice women’s basketball and North Texas were locked in the makings of a class game between these two Texas-based powers. Through 38 minutes, neither team led by more than six points. There were 10 ties and seven lead changes. The back-and-forth was constant and neither team ever felt in control.

Malia Fisher and Emily Klaczek were productive from the field with Sussy Ngulefac coming off the bench with a team-high 13 points as well as four boards. Everything seemed to be going well for the home team until all of a sudden the shots stopped falling at the most inopportune time.

More: Roost Podcast — Spring Roundup

The Owls missed eight consecutive shots in the final 2:05 before a last-second layup that proved irrelevant to the final result. The run of misses inflated a woeful day from deep in which Rice converted a dismal 3-of-30 attempts from three-point range, further depressing a disappointing 31 percent shooting performance from the field.

Final Box | North Texas 63 – Rice 54

Key takeaway | Slipping away

There’s never a good time to lose four in a row, but the last weeks of the regular season are a particularly painful time to do so. Two weeks ago the double-bye in the conference tournament looked exceedingly likely. Today, not so much.

Rice is currently tied in the win column with Charlotte,  UAB, Memphis and UTSA. They don’t hold the tiebreaker with any of those four, with the Roadrunners still on the schedule in the final game of the regular season. That lack of a tiebreaker is what makes the double-bye seem so out of reach right now.

If Charlotte beats FAU on Sunday or ECU on Tuesday, they’ll be guaranteed the spot ahead of Rice in the standings. The same goes for UAB if they’re able to beat Wichita State on Tuesday.

The Owls’ only chance right now would require Charlotte to lose both games, UAB to lose to Wichita State, Memphis to lose to North Texas AND Rice to beat UTSA. If that exact scenario happened, Rice would finish 10-8, a game ahead of that entire grouping.

Up Next: at UTSA (Tuesday, Mar. 5)

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

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball drops home tilt to Temple

By

Rice Women’s Basketball fell behind early to Temple and couldn’t mount a comeback, dropping their third straight as the conference tournament looms.

Temple didn’t waste any time asserting their intentions on Sunday afternoon. As Rice women’s basketball slowly took their time ramping up, the visiting Owls jumped out to a 13-4 lead, putting the home team on notice. Rice volleyed back, evening the score at 16-apiece before Temple turned on the gas once again. By the time the first quarter ended, Rice was trailing by 10 points.

The Rice deficit hovered around that double-digit mark for most of the next three quarters. They had a tough time slowing down Temple guard Tarriyonna Gary, who led the visiting Owls with 20 points and knocked down all five of her attempts from three.

The long ball would prove to be too much for Rice to overcome. Every time Rice thought they’d cut into the deficit, Temple delivered a back-breaking three. Rice made 4-of-16 from deep. Temple converted 10-of-17.

A furious fourth quarter rally proved to be too little, too late for the home team. Trailing by 17 after a Temple three, Rice went on a 10-2 run, but they still trailed by nine. Malia Fisher led Rice in scoring, finishing with 24 points and eight rebounds, a valiant effort, but eventually, the clock would run out.

Final Box | Temple 75 – Rice 66

Key takeaway | Crunch time

Entering Sunday, the top six teams in the AAC were separated by one combined game in the win column. With four double-byes available for the conference tournament, the margin was razor-thin. That made Sunday’s defeat particularly costly.

Now sitting at 9-7, they hold the tiebreaker over ECU, South Florid and Tulsa, but lack the tiebreaker against Temple, UAB and Charlotte with a game against North Texas looming. The double-bye is still within reach, but how these next few games go will play a significant role in determining who gets the extra rest. Rice cannot afford another loss.

Up Next: vs North Texas (Saturday, Mar. 2)

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

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball: The most unselfish team in (the) America(n)

By

Rice women’s basketball isn’t led by one singular star, instead leaning on a deep roster that shares the ball and just keeps winning games.

Rice women’s basketball is not your conventional team, at least not in today’s era of the sport where one superstar can take you a long way. The Owls sit within striking distance of the top spot in the AAC standings but you won’t find any individuals near the pinnacle of their respective leaderboards.

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

For those checking in for the first time, or those returning, a quick programming note. Special features like this are reserved for our subscribers. Have questions? You can get those answered in our monthly Q&As and get access to all practice notes, recruiting updates and features like this one when you subscribe on Patreon today.

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

Early turnovers doom Rice Women’s Basketball at Memphis

By

Rice Women’s Basketball struggled early and was unable to complete a comeback, falling to Memphis on the road.

The shots were falling early for Rice women’s basketball, but they weren’t coming often enough. Slippery hands led to an astounding 14 turnovers in the first half, forcing the visiting Owls into an uphill battle against a Memphis squad that did not return the favor.

Midway through the second quarter, the Rice offense started to slow down and Memphis began to widen the gap. The Tigers led by as many as 10 points before a well-timed three from Kennedy Clifton cut the Owls’ deficit to eight heading into halftime. Despite their struggles, they had a chance to make it a ballgame in the second half.

The tide began to turn in the third quarter. Memphis turned the ball over more than Rice who got the margin back within five points as the fourth quarter arrived. Emily Klaczek gave the Owls their first lead of the second half, but a last second shot wouldn’t fall, sending the game to overtime without the services of Malia Fisher, who fouled out near the end of regulation.

Rice made just one field goal in extra time. Memphis made three, pulling back in front of the Owls to hand them a costly road loss.

Final Box | Memphis 79 – Rice 74

Key takeaway | Protect the basketball

Memphis had nine more shots than Rice on Tuesday night. The Tigers weren’t roughly as efficient as the Owls, shooting 45.5 percent from the floor to the Owls’ 47.4 percent, but what the home team lacked in efficiency they were able to make up for in volume. That’s because Rice gave the ball away way too many times, committing 22 turnovers on the night.

Even when accounting for the seven Memphis steals, the prevailing storyline was mental mistakes and unforced errors. That’s how a team like Rice, which entered the night tied for first in the win column among all AAC teams, found itself in comeback mode against a Memphis team near the bottom of the standings.

Rice is a better team than Memphis. They didn’t show that Tuesday and there are only a handful of games remaining before the wiggle room goes away. There are no mulligans in March.

Up Next: vs Temple (Sunday, Feb. 25)

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

Recent Posts

Rice Women’s Basketball falls to UAB on the road

By

Rice Women’s Basketball saw a three-game winning streak snapped on Saturday, falling to UAB on the road.

Tied in the win column with North Texas entering the weekend, Rice women’s basketball was riding a hot streak to the top of the AAC standings. That momentum looked to continue at tip off against UAB with Malia Fisher back in the starting lineup and the scorer of the game’s first points.

Both sides traded baskets in the early going as the lead seesawed back and forth. Seven was the largest margin for either side held only briefly by the Blazers to start the second quarter. Not long after, Rice used a 12-3 run to erase the deficit completely, going in front in the final minute of the half. Fisher led the way with 10 points. She would go on to finish with a team-high 20.

Fisher got the scoring started again in the third quarter and later provided a big basket, punctuating a 10-0 Rice run to put the visiting Owls back in front once more. The eight points of the quarter would belong to UAB, though, providing an ominous foreshadowing for what would prove to be a disappointing fourth quarter for Rice. It would be the final of 17 lead changes in the contest.

UAB couldn’t miss in the final frame, shooting 73 percent from the field to the Owls’ 37 percent. That helped the home team outscore Rice by seven in those final 10 minutes. UAB ended the game on a 6-0 run, slamming the door on any hopes of a late comeback.

Final Box | UAB 87 – Rice 74

Key takeaway | Bench blocked

Following a streak of several huge performances from the Rice bench, the Owls’ reserves were limited to 26 points today. For most teams, that’s a solid showing, but the Rice bench hit 50 points last time out against ECU and was largely kept in check beyond a strong shooting performance from Jazzy Owens-Barnett.

The bench isn’t really a question mark for this squad at this point. We know they’re deep, capable and talented. The question now becomes can the stars of this team rise up and take over a game when they need to?

Malia Fisher (9-of-21), Destiny Jackson (5-of-9) and Dominque Ennis (2-for-11) each had really good moments today. But when push came to shove in the fourth quarter, the efficiency was not there in clutch moments. Nobody should overreact to one game, but it’s a fair reminder that as much as Rice needs its depth, it’s going to need its stars, too.

Up Next: at Memphis (Tuesday, Feb. 20)

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

Recent Posts