Rice University
No. 10 Baylor
Women's Hoops Loses at No. 10 Baylor
12/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2007
Rice at No. 10 Baylor Box Score (PDF) 
WACO - After a 31-31 opening half, No. 10 Baylor used a 35-11 spurt during the first 12 minutes of the second half to come away with a 76-51 victory over the Rice women's basketball team Sunday afternoon in front of a season-high 5,859 fans at the Ferrell Center on the Baylor campus.
Baylor (10-1) had four players score in double figures as the Lady Bears converted on 18-of-30 from the floor in the second half. Angela Tisdale registered 16 of her 18 points in the second half, while Rachel Allison tallied a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.
Rice (7-7) was led by its senior class as Kadie Riverin headlined the Owls, racking up 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting. Valeriya Berezhynska chipped in 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds. Tiffany Loggins also put together a solid performance, scoring nine points and five rebounds.
"We knew that Baylor was going to pick up their intensity during the second half," head coach Greg Williams said. "Charles Dickens wrote A Tale of Two Cities and this game was a tale of two halves. Baylor was much more aggressive than we were going to the basket in the second half. They showed why they're the No. 10 team in the country after a sluggish start."
Loggins poured in five points in the game's first three minutes as Rice built a 9-0 lead. The Owls defense also started strong by creating five turnovers on Baylor's first five possessions.
Rice stretched its advantage to 22-11 with 7:57 to go as Brittney Hudson knocked down a jumper in the paint. The Sugar Land native scored five points off the bench for the second consecutive game.
The Lady Bears charged back with 14 of the next 16 points capped by a Danielle Wilson mid-range jumper at the 4:00 mark to give Baylor a 25-24 edge.
The Owls regrouped behind four points from Riverin to even the score at 31-31 going into the locker room.
"We started off shooting the ball well and executed at a high level on offense to start the game," Williams said. "I thought we also played some good defense by double teaming in the post early to force Baylor into some turnovers."
After being held to two points and picking up two fouls in 12 minutes in the first half, Tisdale reeled off her 16 second half points during Baylor's run to start the second half allowing the Lady Bears to go ahead 66-44 with 8:09 left.
Danielle Wilson and Melissa Jones totaled 11 and 10 points for Baylor as the Lady Bears improved to 56-1 in non-conference home games under head coach Kim Mulkey with the 76-51 win.
Rice embarks on its third season of Conference USA action Friday against league preseason favorite Tulane. Tip-off against the Green Wave is on-tap for 7pm CT.
"This has been a unique season for us only playing three games out of 14 to start the season in the city of Houston," Williams said. "It's been difficult of our players and they've held up pretty well. I would have taken a 7-7 record at this point with our schedule. Next weekend will be another challenge for us to start conference play against two quality teams in Tulane and UTEP."
KTRU 91.7 FM and RiceOwls.com will carry all of the action live against Tulane with a 6:45pm CT pregame show from Sharp Gym on the Houston Baptist University campus.
