Rice University
East Carolina
Women's Hoops Eliminates East Carolina
3/6/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 6, 2008
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ORLANDO, Fla. - Kadie Riverin and Valeriya Berezhynska paced a balanced scoring effort as the Rice women's basketball team led wire-to-wire en route to a 69-55 victory over East Carolina Thursday evening in the final opening round game of the C-USA Tournament at the UCF Arena.
The Owls (14-17) advance to face top-seeded and No. 18 UTEP (25-2, 16-0 C-USA). The Miners own the nation's longest winning streak at 21 consecutive games.
"I'm very happy with our team," head coach Greg Williams said. "We thought it would be a tough turnaround playing a team that we just had to play just five days ago to finish the regular season."
Riverin scored 16 of her game-high 20 points during the second half. The Ottawa native was 6-of-10 from the floor and knocked down 7-of-8 free throws. She has reached the 20-point mark six times this season with five of those efforts coming against C-USA opponents.
Berezhynska added 12 points in 17 minutes, while Maudess Fulton contributed eight first half points. Emery Carter tallied eight points and six rebounds. Tara Watts and Morgan Mayse chipped in seven points apiece for the Owls.
"We are playing better now as a team coming into this tournament," Carter said. "We just wanted to get out there and play after sitting around the hotel all day."
Rice came out clicking out on all cylinders and buried 7 of its first 9 shots to build a 19-4 advantage capped by a Carter transition lay-up from Watts at the 11:57 mark of the first half.
The Pirates (13-17) charged back behind LaCoya Terry, who finished with 10 first half points. Her lay-up with 1:25 left pulled the Pirates within 31-26. Riverin responded with a jumper as time expired to give the Owls a 33-26 heading into the locker room.
Rice retook the momentum by scoring 18 of the first 22 points of the second half capped by a pair of Riverin free throws to make it 51-30 with 12:59 to go. ECU trimmed the deficit down to 69-55 for the final margin.
The Owls square off against top-seeded and No. 18 UTEP Friday at 7pm CT in the quarterfinals of the C-USA Tournament hosted by UCF. KTRU 91.7 FM and RiceOwls.com will carry all of the action live from Orlando with a 6:45pm pregame show.
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