Photo credit: Rice Athletics
January 18, 2023 12:03 am
The Rice women’s basketball team came back from an 11-point deficit in the second quarter to beat the University of Texas in San Antonio by a score of 78-76 on Monday night. With her two straight wins over Conference USA opponents, the Owls are now 3-4 in conference play and she’s 12-4 overall. The Owls were led offensively by senior guard Caitlin Crosthwaite. He scored his career-high 23 points against the Roadrunners and also tied his school record of 3 points scored in a game with his 7.
According to head coach Lindsey Edmonds, she was proud of her team’s victory.
“It’s hard to win and hard to win in conference play,” Edmonds said. “I was in Tennessee on Wednesday and went to El Paso on Saturday and had a very long week. [turning] around here [tonight] playing. I thought I had a slow start, but I found a way.”
Owl and Roadrunner started the game by exchanging baskets in the first few minutes. But despite attempts by Crosthwaite and senior forward Ashley Austin to counter the Roadrunners’ basket, the Roadrunners jumped to an eight-point lead by the end of the first quarter. They fell behind by 11 points, but made up the deficit with a 9-0 run with three minutes remaining. Crosswaite’s 3-pointer with 36 seconds remaining gave the Owls their first lead since leading 2–0 at the start of the game. However, a last-minute layup by the Roadrunners allowed UTSA to take his 39–38 lead going into halftime.
After starting the half at crossweight 3, the Owls regained the lead early in the third quarter and never looked back. Crosthwaite, Austin and sophomore forward Maria Fisher helped the Owls build a lead in the third quarter. The Owls continued to maintain his momentum going into the fourth quarter. With three minutes left in the game he was up 11 points, the Owls almost took the lead when with a minute and a half left the Roadrunners made his 9-0 run and cut the deficit to two points. rice field. However, senior guard Destiny Jackson hit several key free throws to extend the Owls’ lead to five. With UTSA and -1 to cut the lead to his two, Rice shrunk the clock to his two seconds and his one-second effort at the end of UTSA didn’t connect.
According to Edmonds, the Owls’ strong performances in the second and third quarters allowed them to survive a closing push by the Roadrunners.
“We won the second and third quarters, so we were able to make some mistakes in the fourth quarter, but we still finished the game,” Edmonds said. “I am proud of our fight and our toughness. [that] It was toughness throughout the non-conference season, so it was nice to see that again. ”
The Owls will try to keep that momentum going when they host the University of North Texas on January 19th at 7pm.