Owls Top Colonials
HOUSTON, TX (Tudor Fieldhouse) -- The Rice Owls came into Monday night's game versus George Washington with two consecutive losses by a combined 64 points. George Washington had faced four top-ten teams and, except for a 19-point thumping at the hands of Texas A&M on Saturday, GW gave those top-ten teams all they could handle.
Advantage GW, right? Uh...No.
Rice led GW 44 to 28 at halftime and held on to defeat the Colonials 78 to 68. After breaking a 2 to 2 tie, Rice (5-8) never trailed the rest of the ball game.
Owls' freshman point guard D'Frantz Smart led the Owls with 22 points; six assists; and four steals. Smart played 39 (out of a possible 40) minutes in the game.
Senior Maudess Fulton was in attack mode in the first half and scored 13 of her 20 total points to get the Owls off to the fast start.
"I think everyone was just trying to be a lot more aggressive," Fulton said after the game. "We were just taking what the defense gave us and it worked to our advantage."
The Colonials Jessica Adair (6'4") began imposing her will on the Owls in the second half. Adair went to work on the low block and scored 17 second-half points to help pull GW within four points (68 to 64) with 3:43 left in the game. However, Fulton scored a driving lay up to put the Owls up by six. After Adair scored four more points (around two free throws by Owls junior guard Tara Watts), Owls sophomore post Morgan Mayse drained a three-point shot to give the Owls a 75 to 68 lead with 90 seconds remaining.
"When Morgan made that three, that was a huge weight off our backs," said Smart.
After the Owls woeful showing on Saturday in the 81 to 50 road loss to UT-San Antonio, Smart said the team got together in practice and decided to play better for themselves, their coaches; and their school.
"I think that blowout changed our mentality in how we approach games," Smart declared. "After getting blown out by a team that was 5 and six by 30 -- we were down by 40 at one point -- it was embarassing to us, and most importantly, it was embarassing to our coaching staff and to Rice University. We knew, today, we were going to have to step it up and represent our school; ourselves and our coaches. That's exactly what we did."
After the game, Owls head coach Greg Williams said, "It was a night and day performance from just two days ago. We'd been pathetic our last two games getting beat by a combined 64 points. We hadn't been competitive or aggressive. They set a tone yesterday (in practice). They had good focus and good energy. I didn't know that would carry over to the game. We were more aggressive attacking the basket tonight. We were crisp tonight. We were sharp. We had more energy. We were a totally different team."
The Owls begin Conference USA play this Friday versus UTEP (2008 C-USA regular season champs - undefeated) in El Paso, TX. Tip is set for 8:05 p.m.
Advantage GW, right? Uh...No.
Rice led GW 44 to 28 at halftime and held on to defeat the Colonials 78 to 68. After breaking a 2 to 2 tie, Rice (5-8) never trailed the rest of the ball game.
Owls' freshman point guard D'Frantz Smart led the Owls with 22 points; six assists; and four steals. Smart played 39 (out of a possible 40) minutes in the game.
Senior Maudess Fulton was in attack mode in the first half and scored 13 of her 20 total points to get the Owls off to the fast start.
"I think everyone was just trying to be a lot more aggressive," Fulton said after the game. "We were just taking what the defense gave us and it worked to our advantage."
The Colonials Jessica Adair (6'4") began imposing her will on the Owls in the second half. Adair went to work on the low block and scored 17 second-half points to help pull GW within four points (68 to 64) with 3:43 left in the game. However, Fulton scored a driving lay up to put the Owls up by six. After Adair scored four more points (around two free throws by Owls junior guard Tara Watts), Owls sophomore post Morgan Mayse drained a three-point shot to give the Owls a 75 to 68 lead with 90 seconds remaining.
"When Morgan made that three, that was a huge weight off our backs," said Smart.
After the Owls woeful showing on Saturday in the 81 to 50 road loss to UT-San Antonio, Smart said the team got together in practice and decided to play better for themselves, their coaches; and their school.
"I think that blowout changed our mentality in how we approach games," Smart declared. "After getting blown out by a team that was 5 and six by 30 -- we were down by 40 at one point -- it was embarassing to us, and most importantly, it was embarassing to our coaching staff and to Rice University. We knew, today, we were going to have to step it up and represent our school; ourselves and our coaches. That's exactly what we did."
After the game, Owls head coach Greg Williams said, "It was a night and day performance from just two days ago. We'd been pathetic our last two games getting beat by a combined 64 points. We hadn't been competitive or aggressive. They set a tone yesterday (in practice). They had good focus and good energy. I didn't know that would carry over to the game. We were more aggressive attacking the basket tonight. We were crisp tonight. We were sharp. We had more energy. We were a totally different team."
The Owls begin Conference USA play this Friday versus UTEP (2008 C-USA regular season champs - undefeated) in El Paso, TX. Tip is set for 8:05 p.m.
posted by Kris G @ 7:00 PM
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