Rice University
SMU
Neaves Carries Owls to C-USA Final
3/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 4, 2006
Dallas -
Lauren Neaves scored a career-high 36 points, the fifth-best total in school history, to lead Rice past SMU 57-52 in the semifinals of the Conference USA women's basketball tournament at Moody Coliseum Saturday. The win sets up a Sunday championship tilt between the second-seeded Owls (17-12) and top-seeded Tulsa (24-5) to determine C-USA's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
"I have never seen such a performance from a single player," said Rice head coach Greg Williams. "Lauren did so many things well tonight on offense and defense, and she helped lift this team. It was so tough playing SMU on their court, in front of their fans, in such an important game, but Lauren got it done."
Neaves, who was 15-21 from the field, the third-highest number of field goals in a single game by an Owl, had her 16th double-double of the year as Rice won its ninth straight game. She grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds on the way to setting a Rice single-season record for most rebounds with 315. The previous record was 306 by Amelia Cooper in 1989.
Valeriya Berezhynska opened the scoring with a short jumper at the 18:45 mark, and Neaves and Kadie Riverin added buckets as Rice raced to a 7-0 lead with 16:14 to go. SMU's Katie Gross capped a Mustang rally with a three-pointer to tie the score at 7-7 three minutes later, but the Owls started to widen the margin with four Neaves baskets to make it 21-10 with 5:41 on the clock.
Riverin knocked down a trey and Neaves, who had 20 points in the first half, added a hat-trick of short baskets to give the Owls their biggest lead of the game at 32-16 with 47 second to go before Sarah Davis swished a three to send the Mustangs into the half trailing 32-19.
Rice shot 51.7 percent from the field in the first half while holding SMU to just 24.2 percent.
The Mustangs came out for the second half on fire, rolling to a 9-0 run to cut the lead to four with 16:26 to go. After a Neaves lay-up, Kendall Shead's lay-up for SMU kept it a four-point game, but Neaves followed with two buckets and a free throw to put Rice up 39-30 with 12:59 left. Shead hit three straight from the field to bring SMU within three at the 9:15 mark, and a trey by Davis cut Rice's lead to 41-39. Samantha Stovall scored on a jumper for the Owls and Neaves hit a pair of free throws before Berezhynska popped in a short jump shot with 6:26 left to make it 47-39.
Shead scored eight of SMU's next 10 points and closed the gap to two at 51-49 with 2:42 remaining, but that was as close as the weary Mustangs could get as Neaves and Riverin each hit three charity shots down the stretch to secure the win.
Riverin was the only Rice player besides Neaves to score in double figures, tossing in 10 points and dishing out five assists, while Berezhynska nabbed nine boards and blocked three shots. The Owls shot 40 percent from the field and 70.6 percent from the free throw line.
Shead led SMU (16-14) with 28 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Gross also had eight boards, and Davis blocked four shots for the Mustangs, who shot 33.8 percent from the field.
Rice and Tulsa tip-off at 3 pm Sunday in the championship game, to be televised by ESPN2. It will also be broadcast on 91.7 FM, KTRU in Houston.
