Rice University
SMU
Neaves Powers Owls Past Mustangs 80-69
1/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2007
Houston -
Lauren Neaves notched her 44th career double-double with 17 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, and Samantha Stovall had her first career double-double to lead Rice past SMU 80-69 Thursday in Conference USA women's college basketball action at Autry Court. The win evened the all-time series at 28-28, as the Owls improved to 11-9 overall and 4-3 in league play, while the Mustangs dropped to 11-8 and 3-4.
Stovall had 11 points and 10 rebounds to go with a career-high six assists, and Rice had three other players in double figures, led by Krystal Frazier's team-high 18 points. Tiffany Loggins chipped in a season-high 14 points, and Kadie Riverin added 12.
SMU jumped to an early lead on a three-pointer by Jillian Samuels and a jumper by Alice Severin before Neaves put the Owls on the board with a layup. Severin's free throw with 16:46 left gave the Mustangs a six-point lead, but Neaves and Frazier buckets and a Loggins trey pushed the pendulum in the other direction to give Rice an 11-10 edge. Loggins swished another long-distance shot and Frazier drove for a layup to give the Owls a 16-10 lead with 14:06 to go. Rice held the lead for the next 10 minutes before Delisha Wills hit a pair of free throws to push SMU in front 29-28 with 3:48 on the clock. Janielle Dodds scored on a three-point shot and Wills popped in a layup to stretch the lead to six, before Neaves and Loggins scored and Frazier knocked down a three with 55 seconds to go to send the owls into the half with a 35-34 lead.
Riverin and Neaves bumped the lead to five at the start of the second half, but Dodds cut it to one at the 17:04 mark on a layup. That was the closest SMU would get for the remainder of the game as the Owls steadily built a 12-point lead at 62-50 with 8:38 left. The Mustangs chipped away a bit at the lead, cutting it to seven before Stovall converted a three-point play after being fouled on a layup. After SMU cut the lead back to eight with 5:02 to go, Mustang head coach Rhonda Rompola was whistled for a technical foul and Riverin calmly knocked down both shots. Samuels closed the gap to six again on a trey and a layup with 2:30 left, but Rice made eight free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Dodds led all scorers with 24 points and hauled down 11 rebounds, while Samuels contributed 16 points for the Mustangs.
Rice hosts Tulsa Saturday at 2 pm at Autry Court.
