Rice University
UCF
UCF Squeaks By Rice for 66-64 Victory
3/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
March 5, 2009
New Orleans - Coming into the Conference USA Championship as the 12 seed the Rice Owls women's basketball team was not given much of a chance of getting past five seed UCF in the first round. Especially, after the Knights handily defeated the Owls 77-52 in Orlando during C-USA play.
Rice head coach Greg Williams' self-described "junk defense" and the stellar gritty play of senior Maudess Fulton kept the Owls in the ball game. And, if not for a UCF three-pointer from a very unlikely source in Amber Kirkpatrick, the Owls would be facing four seed Houston in Friday's quarter-final action. But, UCF was able to squeak by the upstart Owls 66 to 64 at Tulane's Fogelman Arena.
The Knights were ahead by 14 (48-34) with 12:56 to play and looked like they were in control when Fulton hit back-to-back buckets to keep the Owls alive. Those two baskets ignited a 20 to 9 run by Rice that was capped off by a turnaround Fulton jumper to giving Owls the lead at 58-57 (2:26). It was their first lead, since Megan Elliott opened the game with an inside move.
Rice was then down only by one point at 61-60, when Kirpatrick, an 18 percent shooter from three-point range, nailed her sixth made trey of the season in 30 attempts from the left wing with 22 seconds left on the clock.
Two made free throws from D'Frantz Smart brought Rice to within two at 64-62, but UCF's Angelica Mealing calmly sank two free throws with 10 seconds remaining. Smart answered quickly with a lay-up and with three seconds left Rice promptly fouled Kirkpatrick who missed the front end of a one-and-one. The Owls were still alive with 2.4 seconds remaining, but needed a Christian Laettner finish to advance. But, it was not to be as the UCF defense prevented Megan Elliott from getting a good handle on the Tara Watts inbounds pass and time expired.
In the first half, UCF went on an early 12-0 run take a 20-7 lead, but Morgan Mayse scored three straight baskets and the Owls were suddenly on a 10-0 run of its own. UCF then closed the half outscoring Rice 11 to 5.
The Owls showed gutsy play in the final 20 minutes in outscoring the Knights 40 to 32 as Fulton scored 18 of her game-high 22 points in the second-half. Smart finished 15 points, 6 assists, 4 rebounds, while Elliott tallied 12 points and 7 rebounds. Mayse finished with 8 points, while Emery Carter grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds.
Maudess Fulton became only the 16th Owl to score 1,000+ career-points. She entered the contest with 983 and by scoring 22, Fulton finishes her career with 1,005 points. That total ranks 13th in Rice history.
UCF was led by Kirkpatrick's and Aisha Patrick's 13 points. Mealing followed with 12 points and 5 assists. William's "junk defense," a combination of diamond-and-one and triangle-and-two, prevented UCF's Chelsie Wiley to only score 9 points, six below her average and 10 less of what she scored in the first meeting. Also, UCF's Emma Cannon, owner of a 15.6 scoring average was held to 3 points today. Cannon had scored 15 in the first game with Rice.
Rice concluded its season with a 7-23 record, while UCF improved to 14-16.
