Rice University
Memphis
Owls Fall in Overtime 59-58 at Memphis
1/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2010
Memphis, Tenn. --- The Rice Owls women's basketball team played a hard-fought game but fell 59-58 at Memphis in overtime at the FedEx Forum in front of 1,921 fans, to snap a modest two-game winning streak. Rice is now 8-10 on the season and 2-3 in Conference USA, while the Tigers improve to 11-7 and 4-1 in league action.
The Tigers won the first half 23 to 19, as Rice shot 15 percent (5-33). But, the Owls rallied to outscore Memphis in the second-half 28 to 24 and actually, held its largest lead of the game at 47-42 lead after D'Frantz Smart made two free throws with 44 seconds remaining in the contest.
Memphis' Britany Carter, the league's leading scorer (17.9 ppg), made a jumper to make it 47-44 with 31 ticks on the clock, and was fouled by Jessica Goswitz. Carter missed the ensuing free throw but the Tigers' Alex Winchell snared the offensive rebound and Carter canned another basket to make it 47-46. Smart then missed two free throws with 13 seconds remaining after being fouled LaToya Bullard.
With 8 seconds on the clock, Bullard was fouled by Tara Watts. She missed the first free throw, but made the second free throw to push the game to overtime.
The Tigers were up 57-51, but the Owls battled back. Jackie Stanley's layup made it 57-53 and her two free throws at 1:20 cut the deficit to 57-55. A basket by Nicole Dickson gave the Tigers a 59-55, before Watts hit a three-pointer to make it 59-58 with 51 seconds left. A three-point attempt with 13 seconds left by Rice's Morgan Mayse misfired. The Tigers' Savannah Ellis then missed two free throws, but the Owls could not get a shot off.
Rice entered the game as Conference USA's leading free throw shooting team at 74 percent, but vs. Memphis the Owls made 24 of 36 for 67 percent. For the contest, Rice only made 15 of 63 field goal attempts for 24 percent. Memphis was not much better at 32 percent (21-66).
Smart and Stanley led the Owls in scoring with 19 and 14 points respectively. Smart also had a game-high 5 assists. Megan Elliott led Rice with 10 rebounds.
Carter led Memphis with 22 points and 9 rebounds, while Bullard added 11 points and Ellis 10. Ellis also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds.
The Owls now host SMU on Thursday, January 28 at 7 p.m. and Tulsa on Saturday, January 30 at 2 p.m.
For Thursday's SMU contest, admission for fans is only $1.00 and hot dogs will be available for $1.00 each as well.
