Rice University
Tulane
Neaves Leads Owls to Win at Tulane
2/12/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2006
New Orleans, La. -
Lauren Neaves scored 19 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for her eleventh double-double of the season to lead Rice to a 68-56 win at Tulane Sunday in Conference USA women's basketball action. The win, the third in the row for the Owls, moved Rice to 11-12 overall and 7-5 in league play, while Tulane fell to 11-10 and 5-7.
Neaves, who moved to eighth on the Rice all-time scoring list with her fifth point of the game, was eight of 11 from the field and added three assists and two blocked shots to the winning effort.
"We shot the ball very well and our defense was tough," said Rice head coach Greg Williams. "We got out to our usual fast start, and they made a run at us in the second half, but I was proud of the team for hanging in there and getting another road win."
The game opened with a technical foul against Tulane, and Kadie Riverin's two free throws sparked a 10-0 run by the Owls. Tulane whittled away at that lead and got within five at 16-11 on an Ashley Langford jumper with 11:12 to go in the half. Tiffany Loggins knocked down a three-pointer two minutes later for the Owls, and her jumper at the 4:02 mark made it 27-16 Rice. Another Loggins bucket with 1:14 on the clock sent Rice into the half with a 29-18 lead.
Samantha Stovall canned one of her three treys to open the second half, and Loggins scored on a jumper and a pair of free throws to stretch the Rice lead to 14 at 36-22. Neaves made a lay-up and a follow-up charity shot to put the Owls up 41-26 before three quick Tulane baskets cut the lead to nine at 41-32 with 14:01 to go.
Another Stovall three-pointer with 11:43 left put the lead at 12, and then Latrice Elder hit from long range to make it 49-34. Langford and Nikki Luckhurst scored for the Green Wave and a lay-up by Jennifer Sands brought the margin below 10, and Jami Montagnino's jumper with 6:51 to go made it 51-44. Montagnino had another basket and Alendra Brown and Sands made easy lay-ups to bring Tulane within four at 56-52 with 4:07 to go, but Riverin hit two shots and Elder converted a pair of clutch free throws to put Rice back up by 10 with 2:49 remaining.
From that point, the Owls held the lead in double figures, going ahead by 13 on a Neaves free throw with 49 seconds left, and went on to win at Fogelman Arena for the first time since Jan. 20, 1993.
Rice had its best shooting performance of the season, hitting 25 of 44 shots for a 56.8 percent rate, and the team hit an astounding 68.4 percent in the second half. The Owls were 6-12 from three-point territory, and went 12-18 from the charity stripe.
Loggins and Riverin scored 13 points each, and Stovall had another strong outing with 11 points and five assists.
Langford led Tulane with 17 points, with Montagnino chipping in 14 and Sands 10. Nikki Luckhurst, who scored a career-high 28 in the first meeting, was held to seven points, but led the Green Wave with nine rebounds.
Rice returns home to host SMU Friday at 7 pm at Autry Court.
