Rice Owls' pulverize Pirates; Williams gets 300th career victory

Posted: January 26, 2012 -- 10:24 p.m. CST

HOUSTON, TX (Tudor Fieldhouse) -- The Rice Owls shut down the East Carolina Pirates Thursday night with a 66-44 pummeling of the Pirates in front of 321 friends and family.

The win improved the Owls record to 10-10 this season and 4-3 in Conference USA. In addition, the win was the 300th career victory for Owls Head Coach Greg Williams.

"It's nice; but, I've been blessed with a lot of really great players," said a modest Williams after the game. "Both at the University of Houston, Colorado State, and now here at Rice.

"All the credit in the world goes to the players. Kindly, there's not a mention there's a lot of L's behind the 300. I had a lot of great players; and, I've been able to stay in the business a while."

The Owls imposed their defense onto the Pirates early and led 16-5 six minutes into the game. The Pirates (6-13 overall, 0-6 Conference USA) managed to provide a pulse on offense and outscored the Owls 7-2 the next five minutes and cut the Owls' lead to 16-12.

Owls' sophomore Jessica Kuster scored four straight points to restore order and begin a 17-4 run to give the Owls a 33-16 halftime lead.

Kuster scored finished the first half with 15 points (6 for 8 from the field) and four rebounds.

"We got the ball to Kuster in the first half," Williams said. "She played strong tonight."

The Owls removed any hint of an ECU comeback with a 21-5 run the first 9:12 of the second half to lead by 33 points (54-21). The Pirates' five points came from free throws. Seven missed field goals combined with eight turnovers. ECU did not score its first field goal of the second half until the 10:26 mark.

Coach Williams went deep into his bench the final few minutes which helped the Pirates get as close as 18 with 54 seconds remaining.

As she said after Sunday's win, Kuster cited her team's good practices this week as impetus for the strong showing in tonight's game.

"We have been practicing well this week. When we were going over the scout (scouting report) for this game, we had no break downs and we stopped every single play that they were running; so, yes, we've been practicing really well this week."

Owls senior point guard D'Frantz Smart scored 10 points; grabbed 5 rebounds and picked up four steals. Smart was satisfied to get the 300th win for Coach Williams.

"It's a great milestone for Coach Williams," Smart said. "I don't know how long he's been coaching; but, whenever you get to 300 wins, you should be very proud of yourself.

"Congrats to Coach Williams. It's tough to get to that 300 milestone."

The Owls' next game is Saturday, January 28th, at crosstown rival Houston. Tip is set for 4 p.m.

Smart said of the game, "We know they've lost some of their key players; but, they're still a good ball club. And, they still have a really good coach. We can't come in thinking it's going to be an easy game because it's not.

"I haven't won over there (at Hofheinz). I haven't beaten UH since I've been here; so, I'm sure the other seniors are ready for a win against UH."