Women’s losing streak now at four games
The women’s basketball team began the new year in the worst way possible, shooting dismally last weekend against Tulane University and the University of Texas-El Paso en rout to consecutive blowout losses at home.
Playing both games without senior center Valeriya Berezhynska, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder, Rice (7-9, 0-2 C-USA), now in the midst of a four-game slide, suffered major second-half collapses in each game. Last Friday against Tulane, the Owls had their worst offensive game of the year, shooting only 28 percent from the field in a 61-38 loss to the Green Wave. And despite trailing by only one point at halftime Sunday against the Miners, the Owls were outscored 29-0 in the third quarter to fall 77-54.
The Owls look to get their first conference win Sunday as they head to Hofheinz Pavilion to take on crosstown rival University of Houston at 2 p.m. The Cougars (7-9, 1-1 C-USA) are coming off an impressive 74-64 victory last Sunday over the same Tulane squad that blew Rice out of the gym.
Despite shooting only 31 percent and committing 12 turnovers in the first half against the Green Wave (11-4, 1-1 C-USA), Rice was able to stay in the game thanks to its defense. The Owls forced the Green Wave to shoot 26 percent from the field in the half and created nine turnovers. Even without Berezhynska, the Owls’ interior defense proved formidable as senior forward Tiffany Loggins had four of Rice’s six blocks in the half. However, with Rice suffering an offensive malaise, the Owls faced a 24-19 halftime deficit.
Things looked up for the Owls at the beginning of the second half. Freshman forward Morgan Mayse tacked on five points to help Rice pull even at 26-26. But Tulane went on a 17-2 run over the next eight minutes to halt any momentum the Owls had gained. Freshman center Melissa Wittmayer ended the run with a jumper with 9:07 left, but by then it was too late. After a 13-1 run over the next four minutes, the Green Wave led by 27, ending any hope of a comeback.
Unlike the slow pace of the Tulane game, the Owls seemed to benefit from the faster tempo against UTEP (11-2, 2-0 C-USA), shooting 40 percent and scoring 35 points in the first half. Rice also notched eight assists and committed only eight turnovers. A particular bright spot was freshman guard Brittany Hudson, who scored 14 points in 15 minutes off the bench on five-of-nine shooting.
But just as in their previous game, the Owls were atrocious in the second half. Any hopes that Rice could finally get a much-needed victory were quickly dashed at the beginning of the second half, as the team came out flat to start the half and never recovered.
“We just got to get tougher,” Murphy said. “The game is 40 minutes long, not 20 minutes long. We’re a pretty good 20 minute team right now. We all know you got to play hard for 40 plus minutes.”
In an impressive, albeit dubious, feat, the Owls allowed UTEP to score 29 straight points over the course of 12 minutes to put the game sufficiently out of reach. The Miners ended with four players in double figures and shot 53 percent in the second half while holding the Owls to just 20 percent shooting during the same period.
Associate head coach Misty Murphy also admits injuries have taken a toll on the Owls’ preparation for games, perhaps leading to fatigue late in games.
“Because of the injury situation, we have not been able to do the things we typically would do in practice with the number situations,” Murphy said. “Unfortunately, it’s had a little bit of a domino effect not only for those that are sidelined with injury, but those that are in practice.”
Perhaps the lone bright spot of the weekend for Rice was the play of Hudson and Mayse. Hudson’s eight points and eight rebounds against Tulane set career highs in both categories. She also eclipsed her career-high point total against UTEP with 18. And with the Owls in desperate need of post help, Mayse had 11 points and 10 rebounds to keep the team competitive for the first halves.
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