Rice University
Tulsa
Riverin's Season-High Pushes Owls Past Golden Hurricane
1/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 27, 2007
Houston -
Kadie Riverin scored a season-high 19 points and Lauren Neaves had her 45th career double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds as Rice defeated Tulsa 83-65 in Conference USA women's basketball action Saturday at Autry Court. Samantha Stovall added a career-high 15 points and three blocked shots for the Owls, and played stifling defense against preseason C-USA player of the year Jillian Robbins, limiting the former Spring star to eight points.
The win, Rice's third in a row, pushed the Owls to 12-9 overall and 5-3 in league play, while Tulsa fell to 7-13, 2-6.
Tulsa opened up an early 7-2 lead on a three-pointer and jumper by Valerie Siemens before Rice went on a 24-2 run to blow the game open midway through the first half. A Jamie Dreiling trey for Tulsa and a pair of Tiffany Loggins buckets for the Owls made it 30-12 Rice with 7:08 to go, but the Golden Hurricane scored nine straight points over the next six minutes to cut the lead to nine with 1:02 on the clock. Loggins popped in a three-pointer with 19 seconds left, and Tandem Mays nailed a long three for Tulsa just before the buzzer to make it 33-24 at the half.
Tulsa turned the ball over 13 times in the first half, and shot only 28.6 percent from the field while racking up 13 fouls.
Riverin and Krystal Frazier put on an offensive show to open the second half, leading an 18-2 Rice run to put the Owls up 51-26 with 15 minutes left. Riverin scored on a driving layup a minute later to give Rice its biggest lead of the game at 57-28, but Larrissa Williams helped Tulsa chip away at that lead and Mays knocked down a jumper and free throw to chop the margin to 17 at 65-48 with 6:09 to go. Tara Watts canned a three-pointer a minute later that effectively ended the Golden Hurricane comeback, and the Owls cruised home from that point.
Marksmanship was key for Rice, as the team hit 19-25 from the field in the second half to finish the game with 53.8 percent shooting. Frazier tallied 15 points, including three three-pointers, and Riverin dished out a game-high six assists to go with a career-high five steals. Loggins added nine points and three blocks.
Mays topped all scorers with 20 points, and Williams notched a double-double with 15 points and 15 boards.
Rice hosts conference-leading UTEP Thursday at 7 pm.
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