Rice University
Southern Miss
Women's Hoops Stymies Southern Miss
1/17/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 17, 2008
Rice at Southern Miss Final Book (PDF) 
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Kadie Riverin and Morgan Mayse combined for 37 points to carry the Rice women's basketball team past Southern Miss 64-58 Thursday evening in a Conference USA tilt at Reed Green Coliseum on the USM campus.
Rice (8-10, 1-3 C-USA) ended a five-game overall and a seven-game road losing streak. The Owls knocked down 20-of-25 from the foul line, including a 15-for-19 clip in the second half.
Riverin poured in 22 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including an 8-for-10 effort at the foul line. Mayse added a career-best 15 points and pulled down eight rebounds in her fourth straight start filling in for an injured Valeriya Berezhynska.
"Kadie did a great job of bouncing back from a slow start," associate head coach Misty Murphy said. "As a point guard, it's traditionally not your role to be a scorer. Kadie took advantages of the scoring opportunities that she was presented with tonight."
Tara Watts and Emery Carter also added complete efforts for the Owls. Watts scored seven points to go along with four assists and four steals, while Carter tallied six points, three steals and gobbled up a career-high nine rebounds.
Southern Miss (10-7, 1-3 C-USA) was headlined by Stephanie Helgeson, who scored 20 points and recorded four blocks. Andrea Barber chipped in 11 points, six rebounds and five assists. The Rice defense limited C-USA's No. 2 scorer Pauline Love to a season-low six points on 3-of-15 shooting. Love corralled a game-high 20 rebounds.
"I was proud of how our post defense executed on Love," Murphy said. "She's a tremendous athlete, and we were able to do a good job of limiting her inside touches."
The Golden Eagles held a 32-26 advantage with 1:58 remaining in the opening half as Barber scored five straight points. Helgeson also contributed 14 first half points on 5-of-6 from the floor.
Rice seized the momentum by scoring 10 of the frame's final 12 points. Riverin and Mayse connected on consecutive three-pointers to give the Owls a 36-34 lead going into the locker room.
Rice got some much-needed separation midway through the second half. Riverin and Mayse strung together six consecutive points to make it 46-39 with 12:06 left.
Southern Miss charged back and got within two points on three separate occasions. With the score 53-51 at the 5:35 mark, Mayse coupled a pair of free throws with a critical offensive rebound, put-back basket and sealed the win with a mid-range jumper at the 1:06 mark to put Rice ahead 60-53.
The Owls also converted on 5-of-6 at the line over the final 2:28 to complete the 64-58 win.
"We're very pleased with Morgan's aggressive play on both ends," Murphy said. "She played hard on both ends. As a whole, the team should walk away from this game with a good feeling, but also know we still have some work to do."
Rice welcomes UCF to Sharp Gym on the Houston Baptist campus Sunday at 2pm. The Knights (7-10, 0-4 C-USA) lost a 74-61 decision earlier tonight to Houston. KTRU 91.7 FM and RiceOwls.com will carry all of the action live from HBU with a 1:45pm CT pregame show.
