Women’s basketball opens season with sweep at Winthrop Classic
The women’s basketball team started its season taking three games in three days to win the Winthrop Adidas Classic, held last weekend in Rock Hill, S.C. Despite playing with a limited roster — the team dressed nine players for the entire tournament and its star center was recovering from an injury — Rice held off the United States Naval Academy, the University of North Texas and host Winthrop University to start 3-0.
The Owls will travel to California this weekend to face California State University, Northridge and the University of California-Los Angeles (1-0). Cal State Northridge (0-4) has struggled early, coming off two blowout losses to the University of San Diego and Pepperdine University.
The key player of this weekend’s games was undoubtedly senior center Valeriya Berezhynska, who was coming off an ankle injury that had kept her out of practice for two weeks and caused her to miss Rice’s 82-72 exhibition win against Houston Baptist University on Nov. 1. Berezhynska was also kept out of last Friday’s 63-52 win against Navy to avoid having her play all three days.
However, the senior finally saw action on Saturday, albeit in a reduced role. Berezhynska made the most of her minutes, scoring 22 points in 22 minutes against North Texas. Even playing with four fouls, the senior center scored eight points in the last eight minutes, helping the Owls overcome a late deficit to win 69-65.
Berezhynska saved her best performance for the final day of the tournament against Winthrop. None of her 31 points were bigger than a three-pointer with 20 seconds left that sent the game to overtime, tied at 52. The senior also snagged ten rebounds on the day for her first double-double of the season to help the Owls beat the Eagles 63-54. For her efforts, Berezhynska won not only the tournament MVP but was also named Conference USA Player of the Week.
Head coach Greg Williams (Hanszen ‘70) was very complimentary of his starting center.
“She’s very focused,” Williams said. “[I’m] proud of her dedication and what she’s done over the summer with lifting and her conditioning and it’s nice to see her get these quick of results to start the season, which should be a huge confidence builder for her.”
Berezhynska was not the only upperclassman who stepped up last weekend for the Owls. Senior forward Tiffany Loggins scored a career-high 22 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the game against Navy, and senior point guard Kadie Riverin helped kill a late Navy rally with four free throws in the game’s final 35 seconds.
Redshirt junior guard Maudess Fulton tallied double figures in points in all three games, including 14 points and four steals against Navy and 17 points against Winthrop. She nearly claimed a triple-double in the contest with North Texas, scoring 16 points, corralling a career-high 11 rebounds and eight assists.
With such a young team — the Owls have no fewer than four freshmen who expect to see significant playing time — Berezhynska said the upperclassmen will have to do more than their fair share to keep the team afloat early in the season.
“There is definitely pressure on the starters because everybody coming off the bench is young,” Berezhynska said. “We got to stay out of foul trouble and we can’t have off nights on [offense] because we have to help out our younger [teammates].”
Production off the bench was limited for most of the tournament. Against Navy, freshman forward Morgan Mayse and center Melissa Wittmayer had solid outings. Mayse had 10 points and five rebounds in her first career start, while Wittmayer had five points, five boards, and three blocks in 17 minutes. However, in the last two games, Wittmayer, Mayse, fellow freshman guard Brittney Hudson and sophomore guard Shyrelle Horne combined for only seven total points.
Though Williams said he wants more production from the bench, he also said he knows the situation will eventually get better as the freshmen gain experience.
“We’re trying to bring the freshmen along,” Williams said. “They’re going to have to start giving us a little bit more time on the court, hopefully, as they get more confidence and experience.”
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