Rice Owls fall short versus UTEP

Posted: February 5, 2012 -- 5:10 p.m. CST

HOUSTON, TX (Tudor Fieldhouse) -- The Rice Owls played hard. The Texas-El Paso Miners played hard, too. Unfortunately, neither team shot the basketball well; however, the Miners, thanks to Gloria Brown's dominant second-half performance, defeated the Owls 45-41 early Sunday afternoon inside Tudor Fieldhouse.

"Too much Gloria Brown," said Owls head Greg Williams after the game. "She's the most dominant player in the league on both ends of the floor. She showed it in the second half. We did a good job on her in the first half; but, they went to her down the stretch in the second half. She's a money player. She blocked five shots and gets two steals."

Brown scored just two points in the first half; but, she delivered 14 points in the second twenty minutes. Brown scored 14 of the Miners' 25 second half points.

"We hold them to 27 percent. You take away her 6 for 12; and, the rest of the team probably shot close to 20 percent," Coach Williams added.

The Owls (11-12 overall, 5-5 in Conference USA) shot 25.9% (14 for 54) from the field in the game. The Miners improved to 20-2 overall and a perfect 9-0 in C-USA.

Jessica Kuster led the Owls with 11 points. Brianna Hypolite added 10 points. Besides Brown's 16 points, Kuster and Hypolite were the only players to score in double digits.

Despite shooting 20.7% (6 for 29 from the field), Rice led 21 to 20 at halftime.

With the game tied at 37 (ninth tie of the game), Brown scored six straight points in the paint to give the Owls a hill to large to climb in the final 82 seconds of the game.

Coach Williams was not thrilled with the shots taken by some of his players.

"No, heck no. We took some horrible shots. That's why I was pulling people in and out (of the game). Forced shots. Numbers greatly against your team. We accept forced shots if the shot clock is winding down; but, no, we took a lot of bad shots."

The Owls next game is a week from today, February 12, when the Tulsa Golden Hurricane visit Tudor Fieldhouse. Tip is set for 2 p.m. Fans are encouraged to wear pink for breast cancer awareness.