Rice University
UCF
UCF Beats Rice 81-68
1/6/2011 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Jan. 6, 2011
Houston - UCF survived a late Rice rally to pull away and win 81-68 in the first Conference USA women's basketball game for both teams Thursday evening inside Tudor Fieldhouse. The Knights (8-6, 1-0) were led in scoring by D'Nay Daniels and Aisha Patrick, who both scored 21 points. Rice (8-7, 0-1) was led by Morgan Mayse's 16 points.
The Knights broke a 12-12 tie by outscoring the Owls 11 to 2 for a 23-14 lead. Seven points by Brianna Hypolite and four by Jessica Kuster slashed a 30-18 UCF lead to only five at 35-29, before Chelsie Wily canned two free throws to give the Knights a 36-29 advantage at the half.
UCF's 2-3 zone was bothersome for the Owls in the first half as they committed 14 turnovers. Rice handled the rock better in the final 20 minutes with only six miscues.
The Owls were able to battle back in the second-half to take a brief 49-46 lead on buckets by Opal Taskila and D'Frantz Smart at 11:43. UCF then went on a 12-3 run to forge a 58-52 lead. The Knights' lead was cut to four at 62-58 after two made free throws by Taskila and a driving baseline layup by Megan Elliott, but UCF countered with 10 unanswered points. The Owls then made three three-pointers, two by Jessica Goswitz and one by Mayse to cut the lead to six at 73-67 (1:04). UCF then made eight of 10 free throws in the final minute and held Rice to only one more point to seal the victory.
Wiley also finished with 16 points for the Knights with seven rebounds, while Daniels and Patrick also each grabbed eight rebounds.
Kuster and Hypolite each tallied 10 points for the Owls, while Kuster and Elliott led the team in rebounding with eight boards apiece.
Rice now plays at Tulsa (4-5, 0-1) on Sunday at 2 p.m. The Golden Hurricane lost 78-48 at Houston on Thursday night.
