Rice University
UCF
Women's Hoops Loses to UCF
1/20/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2008
HOUSTON - UCF used a 24-5 spurt in the middle of the second half to come away with a 68-49 win over the Rice women's basketball team Sunday afternoon in Conference USA action at Sharp Gym on the Houston Baptist campus.
"Our team doesn't seem to respond very well when we hit those lulls," head coach Greg Williams said. "I thought we turned the corner after playing well our last two games, but this is a big step back. When our shots don't fall, we start to drop our head and relax on the defensive end. That's a formula for the result you saw today."
Morgan Mayse strung together three consecutive baskets from Kadie Riverin as Rice (8-11, 1-4 C-USA) turned a 27-26 halftime deficit into a 32-27 advantage with 16:41 remaining.
After an Emery Carter lay-up at the 14:04 mark kept the Owls ahead 34-29, UCF (8-10, 1-4 C-USA) started its run behind Jelisa Caldwell and Chelsie Wiley, who combined for 18 of the 24 points during the spurt. Caldwell scored 16 of her career-best 20 points for the Knights in the second half.
Tia Lewis' steal and lay-up gave UCF a 53-39 advantage with 4:11 left. Lewis tallied 17 points on 7-of-9 and grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, while Marshay White chipped eight points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals.
The Knights knocked down 20-of-26 from the foul line, including 17-of-20 in the second half to secure the 68-49 victory. Tara Watts paced the Owls with 13 points and added four assists. The Owls were limited to a 9-of-34 shooting clip in the second half.
"We have to figure out a way to keep our energy up in the second half like we did last game at Southern Miss," Watts said. "We have to shoot the better and play harder defense. When our defense starts to struggle and we're not getting easy lay-ups like we did in the first half, it starts to affect the offense. It went downhill fast once they get their offense going which gave them confidence to play harder defense."
Mayse added 11 points and Carter tacked on a season-high 10 points on a 4-of-5 clip to go along with seven rebounds.
"This has been a tough year for Emery," Williams said. "She's been able to practice the last two weeks (after recovering from multiple injuries) and you can see the difference. Her confidence, conditioning and timing are getting better."
Brittney Hudson hauled in a career-high 10 rebounds, while Riverin compiled five points, seven rebounds and seven assists. The seven assists allowed Riverin to match Kim LaLonde (1993-96) for the No. 6 spot on Rice's career list.
The Owls leaped out to a 13-5 advantage with 13:20 to go in the opening half behind seven points from Watts. UCF fired back with eight straight points as D'Nay Daniels hit a lay-up at the 11:10 mark. The two teams went back and forth before a Lewis lay-up with one minute on the clock gave the Knights a 27-26 edge going into the locker room.
Rice takes on crosstown rival Houston Saturday at Sharp Gym on the HBU campus. Tip-off is on-tap for 2pm. The Cougars (10-9, 4-1 C-USA) recovered from a slow start to upend Southern Miss, 71-61. KTRU 91.7 FM and RiceOwls.com will carry all of the action live from HBU with a 1:45pm CT pregame show.
