Rice University
Prairie View A&M
Women's Hoops Stumbles at Prairie View A&M
12/28/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2007
Rice at Prairie View A&M Box Score (PDF) 
PRAIRIE VIEW - Kadie Riverin and Tara Watts combined for 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting, but the Rice women's basketball team lost a 51-46 decision to Prairie View A&M Friday evening at the William Nicks Building on the Prairie View A&M campus.
The Owls (7-6) were hampered by a season-high 30 turnovers and have now lost five consecutive road games. It was Prairie View's (5-7) first win over Rice since the 1978-79 season.
"Give Cynthia Cooper and her players a lot of credit," head coach Greg Williams said. "She has done an excellent job of building her program and has played a tough out of conference schedule. We held a team to 51 points on their home court and usually that's enough to win. The bottom line was that we were sloppy and careless with the basketball. We threw a lot of soft passes and they used their speed to take the ball away. It's a disappointing loss for us and a good win for them."
Valeriya Berezhynska entered the game as Conference USA's leading scorer averaging 17.9 points per game. The Ukraine native was limited to a season-low seven points and accounted for eight turnovers in 28 minutes of action.
Gaati Werema and Candice Thomas headlined the Panthers with 12 points apiece.
The Rice defense set the tone and forced Prairie View A&M into a 3-for-20 shooting effort over the first 14 minutes of the opening half. The Owls built a 13-8 lead before the Panthers closed the half by knocking down 6-of-11 shots to claim a 25-22 edge going into the locker room.
The two teams went back and forth in the second half, tying seven times and trading the lead on seven different occasions to make it 44-44 with 3:32 remaining.
Prairie View scored on back-to-back possessions and added a Shavonne Smith free throw to take a 49-44 edge. Rice answered with a pair of Berezhynska free throws to close within 49-46 with 21 seconds left.
After Chari Smith split two free throws, Maudess Fulton had a three-pointer rim out with seven seconds on the clock. Charie Smith once again went 1-of-2 at the line for the final margin of 51-46.
Rice concludes its non-conference schedule Sunday at No. 10 Baylor. Tip-off against the Bears is slated for 2pm CT. KTRU 91.7 FM and RiceOwls.com will carry all of the action live from Ferrell Center on the Baylor campus.
"The short turnaround is good for our players," Williams said. "The coaching staff would like to have practice time to work on the 30 turnovers we committed tonight. It's going to be a tough back-to-back road situation for us and hopefully our kids will respond to the challenge ahead."
