Rice University
Marshall
Owls Trample Marshall 52-39
1/13/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 13, 2011
Houston - Three Owls scored in double-digits as Rice defeated Marshall 52-39 in a Conference USA women's basketball matchup Thursday evening inside Tudor Fieldhouse. The victory increases Rice's win total to 10 on the season against seven losses and the Owls move to 2-1 in C-USA play. The Thundering Herd fall to 4-10 overall and 1-2 in C-USA action.
The Owls were led in scoring by Brianna Hypolite with 15 points, all in the first half, while Jessica Kuster added 12 points and Amenemope McKinney came off the bench to score 12 points, 10 of which came in the second-half. Kuster also led Rice in rebounding with 8 boards, D'Frantz Smart had a game-high 9 assists.
Marshall held a 19-9 lead as Veronica Ruiz made a layup at the 11:41 mark in the first half. Rice then outscored the Thundering Herd 19 to 2 in the last 8:20 of the half for a 28-21 half-time lead. Actually, Rice ended up outscoring Marshall 43 to 20 in the final 28 minutes and 20 seconds of the game since the Thundering Herd only tallied 18 points in the final 20 minutes.
Back-to-back made three-pointers by Hypolite put the Owls on top for good with the first one tying the game at 19-19 (4:57) with the second trey giving the Owls their first lead at 22-19 (4:15).
Marshall did close to within four at 30-26 early in the second-half, but two consecutive baskets by McKinney extended the Owls' lead to eight and Marshall never threatened the rest of the way.
The 39 points scored by Marshall is the lowest amount by a Rice opponent since the Owls held UALR to 39 points in the 49-39 victory on Nov. 20, 2007. The lowest point total scored against Rice in an Owl victory is 32 as the Owls crushed UTEP 83-32 (Jan. 27, 2006) in Greg Williams' first season.
It is also the lowest point total scored by Marshall this season.
Marshall's leading scorer, Tynikki Crook only played 23 minutes due to foul trouble and finished the game with only 11 points and 7 rebounds. Crook had been averaging 18.3 points per game and 9.5 rebounds. Ruiz was Marshall's leading scorer with 12 points and 8 rebounds.
Rice is in action again this Sunday when it plays at East Carolina starting at noon (Central).
