Rice University
TCU
Women's Hoops Snaps Four-Game Skid; Upends TCU
12/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2007
HOUSTON - Kadie Riverin and Tara Watts connected on 14-of-20 shots, including 4-of-5 from the three-point line as the Rice women's basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak and gutted out a hard-fought 82-74 victory over former Southwest Conference and WAC rival TCU Thursday evening at Sharp Gym on the Houston Baptist University campus.
Riverin matched a career-high with 25 points and dished out seven assists. Watts also tallied career-bests with 17 points, five assists and five steals as the Owls shot a season-high 46.7 percent from the floor.
"A win is a win," head coach Greg Williams said. "The energy level was strong to start the game. Our conditioning level isn't where it needs to be at this point in this season. With that being said, I thought Kadie (Riverin) played a great game and Tara (Watts) snapped out of her shooting slump. Maudess (Fulton) did a good job of guarding (Adrianne) Ross for the bulk of the game."
Rice (6-5) also got a double-double from Valeriya Berezhynska, who tallied 16 points on 5-of-8 shooting and grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds. Tiffany Loggins contributed nine points and 11 rebounds.
The Owls got off to a strong start, scoring 14 of the first 16 points of the game before TCU (3-5) charged back and evened the score at 22-22 with 7:59 on the clock. After trading the lead four times, Rice took a 39-36 edge into the locker room.
Watts scored 10 of her 17 in the first half after entering the game hitting just 1-of-14 three-point attempts over the last four games. The Owls are 6-0 this season when carrying the lead into the locker room.
"I've been getting told to keep shooting even though I'm missing, by my coaches, my dad, (former Rice men's) coach (Don) Knodel, everybody," Watts said. "So I just had to listen to them."
Rice retook control of the game, opening the second half on an 11-2 spurt to start the second half capped by a Riverin jumper to make it 49-38 at the 14:24 mark.
The Horned Frogs closed the gap within six points on two separate occasions late in the second half, but Rice answered on both occasions. Adrianne Ross paced TCU, scoring 15 of her 17 points in the second half. Emily Carter notched a career-high 14 points and pulled down eight rebounds for the Horned Frogs.
With the score 71-65, Riverin swished a three-ball with the shot clock running down from the top of the key at the 2:15 mark. After a Ross three-ball put TCU back within six at 74-68, Berezhynska put together a critical three-point play of her own off an offensive rebound with 1:07 remaining.
The Owls knocked down 12-of-13 at the free-throw line in the final 5:30 to secure the 82-74 win. The victory snapped a five-game losing streak to TCU dating back the 1999-2000 season.
"We let everything else go tonight (after losing four straight on the road) and came out pumped up ready to go," Riverin said. "We knew that we were struggling with energy so we changed some things up in warm-ups. Winning this game was big to give us a good felling heading into the break."
Rice enjoys a two-week hiatus and returns to the court Dec. 20 against Rider at HBU's Sharp Gym. Tip-off against the Broncs is on-tap for 7pm CT. KTRU 91.7 FM and RiceOwls.com will have all of the action live from HBU.
