Rice University
Tulsa
Late Comeback Falls Short as Owls Lose at Tulsa
1/20/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2006
Tulsa, Okla. -
Tiffany Loggins had a pair of baskets and grabbed two steals to lead a 13-0 run in the final seven minutes, but it wasn't enough to rescue Rice as the Owls fell to Tulsa 58-53 in Conference USA women's basketball action at the Reynolds Center Friday.
Loggins, who finished with 13 points, played tenacious defense and shut down the Tulsa offense to help key the Owls' comeback, and Krystal Frazier hit a lay-up and two jumpers but Tulsa's Jillian Robbins carried her team in the final minutes with a pair of baskets and a blocked shot to help the Golden Hurricane improve to 13-4 overall and 4-2 in C-USA play, while the Owls fell to 6-10 and 2-3.
"We showed a lot by closing the gap," said Rice head coach Greg Williams. "We finally played some tough defense and made some aggressive moves on the offensive end and it helped put us back in the game. The unforced errors killed us, though."
Rice had 24 turnovers, including 10 by Frazier, and lost the battle of the boards 37-30 as Robbins hauled down 15 rebounds for Tulsa. Lauren Neaves, playing with a foot injury, logged only 16 minutes for Rice and was held scoreless, but did grab a team-high seven rebounds.
Tulsa led 27-23 at the half, showing a balanced attack and a hounding defense that forced 15 Rice turnovers. The Golden Hurricane led by 13 points with 4:07 to go in the half before Kadie Riverin hit two buckets and Latrice Elder canned two free throws to cut the Tulsa lead to four at the buzzer.
Three lay-ups and a jumper to open the half pushed the Tulsa lead to 35-23, and a lay-up by Megan Moody gave the Golden Hurricane their biggest lead of the game at 17 with 13:23 remaining. They kept a double-digit lead for the next six minutes until Rice mounted the final comeback attempt.
Robbins led all scorers with 18 points, while Moody added 11 in the winning effort. Frazier topped Rice scorers with 14 and Riverin chipped in 12. Neaves had five blocks, and Elder dished out five assists for the Owls.
Rice returns to action Sunday at SMU as they face the Mustangs in a 3 pm game that will be televised by ESPN2.
