Friday, March 22
Baton Rouge, LA
3 p.m.
Rice University
at
LSU
No. 14 Rice and No. 3 LSU Meet in NCAA First Round
3/21/2024 5:33:00 PM | Women's Basketball
No. 14 Rice Owls (19-14, 9-9 AAC) vs. No. 3 LSU Tigers (28-5, 13-3 SEC)
Game 34 • Friday, March 22, 2024 • 3:00 p.m. CT
Baton Rouge, Louisiana • Pete Maravich Assembly Center
Video Stream: ESPN
Live Stats: NCAA
Twitter Updates: @RiceWBB |
NCAA Tournament
The Owls will face 8th-ranked LSU in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Rice earned the automatic qualifier bid from the American Athletic Conference, after winning the conference tournament in the Owls' debut season in The American.
Last Time Out
The Owls were crowned champions of the AAC after defeating East Carolina 61-41 in the championship game. Sussy Ngulefac led Rice with her first double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Owls won four games in four days in Fort Worth, defeating No. 7 UAB (71-56), No. 2 North Texas (61-59), No. 3 Temple (60-57) and No. 9 ECU (61-41).
MVP…MVP…MVP
Malia Fisher was named the AAC All-Tournament Most Valuable Player, averaging 14.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Destiny Jackson and Sussy Ngulefac joined Fisher on the AAC All-Tournament Team.
Gone Fishin'
Malia Fisher was named to the AAC All-Conference Third Team, the league office announced last Friday morning. Fisher leads the team in points per game (12.9) and rebounds per game (6.8). In the last six games, she is averaging 19.1 points per game, surpassing 20+ points in four of those games.
Rice vs. LSU
This is only the sixth meeting between the two, with the Tigers holding a 4-1 lead in the series history. Rice's lone win against LSU came during the 1998-99 season in a 64-57 win in Houston.
All About Jazz(y)
Jazzy Owens-Barnett was named the AAC Player of the Week (2-12) after netting a career-high 21 points at South Florida and 17 points against Tulsa, leading Rice to both wins. She also had a stretch of six-consecutive made three-pointers between the two games. This is her first career conference honor and Rice's first player of the week honor this season. Rice has had three AAC Honor Roll honorees (Dominique Ennis x2, Destiny Jackson).
50 Off the Bench
The Owls scored a season-high 50 points from the bench in Rice's win over East Carolina. This marked the most bench points since 2016 (52 against Huston-Tillotson) and most against a DI opponent since 2000 (50 against Iona).
50 in the Books
Shelley Pennington and Friends Head Coach Lindsay Edmonds earned her 50th career win last Saturday at South Florida. She became the fastest coach to reach the milestone, doing so in just 81 games.
DJ's World (We're Just Living in it)
After hitting the game-winning layup as time expired in Rice's 65-63 win at SMU, Destiny Jackson was named to the weekly AAC Honor Roll. Jackson finished the game with a season-high 17 points, a season-high seven assists, six rebounds, a block and a steal. She finished with 12 points, three rebounds and three assists in Rice's 76-64 win against Wichita State.
Dom-inant
Dominique Ennis earned the first AAC Honor for the Owls, being named to the AAC Honor Roll after dropping a career-high 25 points, with six three-pointers, while adding a career-high five assists, five rebounds and four steals in Rice's 74-44 win over Texas Southern. Ennis added another 14 points at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Maya Buckets
Maya Bokunewicz drained seven threes in Rice's 73-62 win over Saint Mary's, tying the school record for threes in a game (fourth time, second for Maya). Bokunewicz joins Jenny Cafferty (Fresno State 1-27-00), Kara Liggett (San Jose State 2-17-00), Katelyn Crosthwait (UTSA 1-16-23) and herself (UAB 3-5-22) with seven in a game.
Fisher Tabbed for Preseason Honors, Owls Picked Third
Junior forward Malia Fisher was named to the 2023 Preseason All-AAC Second Team. Fisher, an All-C-USA Second Teamer last season, was second on the team with 11.8 points per game while leading the team with 6.3 rebounds per game. She also had a team-high five double-doubles on the season. Fisher had a career-high 22 points, including the game-winning steal and layup against Louisiana Tech. Rice was selected third in the team's AAC debut, finishing behind preseason favorite South Florida and last season's champion East Carolina.
Game 34 • Friday, March 22, 2024 • 3:00 p.m. CT
Baton Rouge, Louisiana • Pete Maravich Assembly Center
Video Stream: ESPN
Live Stats: NCAA
Twitter Updates: @RiceWBB |
NCAA Tournament
The Owls will face 8th-ranked LSU in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament. Rice earned the automatic qualifier bid from the American Athletic Conference, after winning the conference tournament in the Owls' debut season in The American.
Last Time Out
The Owls were crowned champions of the AAC after defeating East Carolina 61-41 in the championship game. Sussy Ngulefac led Rice with her first double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds. The Owls won four games in four days in Fort Worth, defeating No. 7 UAB (71-56), No. 2 North Texas (61-59), No. 3 Temple (60-57) and No. 9 ECU (61-41).
MVP…MVP…MVP
Malia Fisher was named the AAC All-Tournament Most Valuable Player, averaging 14.5 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Destiny Jackson and Sussy Ngulefac joined Fisher on the AAC All-Tournament Team.
Gone Fishin'
Malia Fisher was named to the AAC All-Conference Third Team, the league office announced last Friday morning. Fisher leads the team in points per game (12.9) and rebounds per game (6.8). In the last six games, she is averaging 19.1 points per game, surpassing 20+ points in four of those games.
Rice vs. LSU
This is only the sixth meeting between the two, with the Tigers holding a 4-1 lead in the series history. Rice's lone win against LSU came during the 1998-99 season in a 64-57 win in Houston.
All About Jazz(y)
Jazzy Owens-Barnett was named the AAC Player of the Week (2-12) after netting a career-high 21 points at South Florida and 17 points against Tulsa, leading Rice to both wins. She also had a stretch of six-consecutive made three-pointers between the two games. This is her first career conference honor and Rice's first player of the week honor this season. Rice has had three AAC Honor Roll honorees (Dominique Ennis x2, Destiny Jackson).
50 Off the Bench
The Owls scored a season-high 50 points from the bench in Rice's win over East Carolina. This marked the most bench points since 2016 (52 against Huston-Tillotson) and most against a DI opponent since 2000 (50 against Iona).
50 in the Books
Shelley Pennington and Friends Head Coach Lindsay Edmonds earned her 50th career win last Saturday at South Florida. She became the fastest coach to reach the milestone, doing so in just 81 games.
DJ's World (We're Just Living in it)
After hitting the game-winning layup as time expired in Rice's 65-63 win at SMU, Destiny Jackson was named to the weekly AAC Honor Roll. Jackson finished the game with a season-high 17 points, a season-high seven assists, six rebounds, a block and a steal. She finished with 12 points, three rebounds and three assists in Rice's 76-64 win against Wichita State.
Dom-inant
Dominique Ennis earned the first AAC Honor for the Owls, being named to the AAC Honor Roll after dropping a career-high 25 points, with six three-pointers, while adding a career-high five assists, five rebounds and four steals in Rice's 74-44 win over Texas Southern. Ennis added another 14 points at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
Maya Buckets
Maya Bokunewicz drained seven threes in Rice's 73-62 win over Saint Mary's, tying the school record for threes in a game (fourth time, second for Maya). Bokunewicz joins Jenny Cafferty (Fresno State 1-27-00), Kara Liggett (San Jose State 2-17-00), Katelyn Crosthwait (UTSA 1-16-23) and herself (UAB 3-5-22) with seven in a game.
Fisher Tabbed for Preseason Honors, Owls Picked Third
Junior forward Malia Fisher was named to the 2023 Preseason All-AAC Second Team. Fisher, an All-C-USA Second Teamer last season, was second on the team with 11.8 points per game while leading the team with 6.3 rebounds per game. She also had a team-high five double-doubles on the season. Fisher had a career-high 22 points, including the game-winning steal and layup against Louisiana Tech. Rice was selected third in the team's AAC debut, finishing behind preseason favorite South Florida and last season's champion East Carolina.
Players Mentioned
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/ Women's BasketballWBB: Rice vs. Marshall Postgame Presser
Wednesday, March 09