Rice University
Tulsa
Women's Hoops Outlasts Tulsa
2/23/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 23, 2008
Rice at Tulsa (Box Score - PDF) 
TULSA, Okla. - Valeriya Berezhynska became the 15th player in Rice women's basketball history to eclipse 1,000 career points and the Owls defeated Tulsa 57-49 behind a strong second half effort Saturday evening at the Donald W. Reynolds Center on the TU campus.
Berezhynska, the reigning C-USA Co-Player of the Week, notched her second consecutive double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds. Her three-point play with 5:09 left put her over 1,000 career points and the Owls ahead 47-45.
"We're very excited for Val to reach that milestone," assistant coach Kim Austin said. "The gameplan was to get the ball to her inside. Tulsa keyed in on her with double teams, but we did a good job of moving the ball in the second half."
Rice (11-17, 4-10 C-USA) would never trail again after Berezhynska's three-point play and scored 10 of the final 14 points down the stretch, including all six free throws in the last 62 seconds for the final margin of 57-49.
"We showed a lot of fight in the second half," Austin said. "We made some critical adjustments at halftime. Our press did a good job of forcing some turnovers and getting our energy level going. It also allowed us to get a couple of easy baskets."
With Rice behind 35-28, Brittney Hudson canned back-to-back three-pointers in a 1:01 span to pull the Owls back to 37-34 with 11:55 remaining. Her two free throws at the 8:47 mark tied the score at 39-39 as the Sugar Land native contributed 10 second half points.
Morgan Mayse chipped in 12 points for her ninth double figure effort in 14 conference games. Tiffany Loggins tallied five points and seven rebounds, while Memri Carmon added two points and two assists in a career-best 26 minutes.
"Our freshmen came up big for us in the second half," Berezhynska said. "Brittney's two three-pointers really got us going. Memri played fantastic defense and Morgan does what she does."
Rice emerged with a 20-16 advantage on a Tara Watts jumper with 5:26 to go in the opening half before Tulsa fired back behind Larrissa Williams and ReShawndra Jackson to close the frame on a 13-2 run to take a 29-22 lead into halftime.
Williams paced the Golden Hurricane (10-17, 6-8 C-USA) with 17 of her game-high 22 points in the first half, while Jackson tallied 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting.
Rice squares off with Marshall and East Carolina next weekend to wrap up the regular season. Tip-off is slated for 7pm Thursday against the Thundering Herd at HBU's Sharp Gym. The Owls celebrate Senior Day 2pm Saturday against the Pirates.
"We have two tough opponents to get ready for next weekend," Austin said. "It's the end of the regular season and we'll need to play if we want to take some momentum into the conference tournament."
KTRU 91.7 FM and RiceOwls.com will carry all of the action live from Sharp Gym with a 6:45pm CT pregame show.
