Rice University
Marshall
Owls Build Lead, Hang On To Beat Marshall 63-61
1/15/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 15, 2010
By MOISEKAPENDA BOWER
Disregard the harrowing, white-knuckle finish and the fact Rice scored its last basket with more than six minutes remaining and the end result - a 63-61 victory over Marshall - was precisely what the Owls needed.
The Owls paired a lengthy offensive possession with a gritty defensive effort over the final 10.8 seconds to secure their first Conference USA win of the season on Friday night at Tudor Fieldhouse. Clinging to a two-point lead that had been whittle down from 62-53 with 5:45 left to play, the Owls (7-9, 1-2 C-USA) turned to senior guard Tara Watts and sophomore forward Jackie Stanley to thwart the Thundering Herd (10-6, 2-2) at the final buzzer and match their win total from last season.
"They scored eight straight points to make a nine-point lead a one-point lead in the blink of an eye," Rice coach Greg Williams said. "The good thing is we got a much-needed conference win at home, and we did a lot of good things to put ourselves in that position."
Watts, whose free throw with 2:54 remaining represented the final point of the game, contested a 15-foot jump shot from Chantelle Handy with three seconds left. Marshall forward Tynikki Crook corralled the offensive rebound and tossed up a hurried shot just before the buzzer sounded, but Stanley forced a miss by extending her arms to the rim.
That frenetic sequence came nearly two minutes after the Herd's previous possession. After Stanley snagged a defensive rebound at the 1:50 mark, Rice did not surrender the ball until D'Frantz Smart was whistled for traveling with 14 seconds left. In the interim Jessica Goswitz and Stanley had offensive rebounds and Smart picked off a pass to keep the ball in the Owls' offensive zone as the seconds ticked away.
"It definitely comes down to toughness," Smart said. "We have some people who just want to win and who are going to get out there and scrap. That last minute and 35 seconds people were just scrapping to get the ball, and that's what we need to pull out games like this."
When Morgan Mayse (a game-high 16 points) followed her sweeping hook shot at the 6:30 mark with a free throw 45 seconds later, the Owls appeared clear of danger. But the 2-3 zone defense that confounded Marshall for most of the game began to show vulnerability, and the Herd countered the Mayse free throw with an 8-0 run capped by a short hook shot from Veronica Ruiz with 3:16 remaining. Neither team would score another basket as both struggled against varying defensive schemes.
With crisp passing and a relentless interior attack, Marshall carved out a 28-21 lead with 6:58 left in the first half before the Owls switched from their man-to-man defense. What followed was a 13-4 Rice run to close the half and a complete shift in momentum, which the Owls maintained following the intermission. The Owls eschewed their usual three-guard lineup and inserted reserve forward Megan Elliott alongside Stanley and Mayse to positive results, as Rice exploited several mismatches inside.
"It worked out pretty good because some of their guards were shorter and we were able to post Megan up on the guards," Mayse said. "It helped us stay in a groove. She stepped up and gave us some good runs."
Stanley posted her third consecutive double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds while Smart and Watts chipped in 12 points apiece. Elliott finished with nine points and five rebounds in 21 minutes off the bench.
Rice now hosts East Carolina (15-2, 4-0) on Sunday at 2 p.m. inside Tudor Fieldhouse.
