Rice Rising: Basketball teams off to hot starts
Junior forward Egor Koulechov goes up for a layup during Rice’s home opener against Texas Southern University. The women’s team is 3-2 and the men’s team is 5-1 so far this year.
Rice women’s basketball is off to a 3-2 start, its best start since the 2011-12 season. The Owls have three double digit wins including a 26 point blowout of Houston Baptist University. Their two losses have come to major conference foes Louisiana State University and Oklahoma State University, the first in a 66-55 loss and the second in a 65-51 loss. Junior guard Shani Rainey leads the team with 16 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game. Senior guard Maya Hawkins is tops on the team with 22 assists in five games. The team is outscoring its opponents by five points per game and is allowing just 58 points per game. The Owls will look to improve on their hot start this weekend on the road in San Antonio against the University of the Incarnate Word.
The men’s basketball team had lofty expectations coming into the season. Thus far, it is exceeding them. After its 87-79 victory over the University of the Incarnate Word last week, the Owls improved to 5-1 on the season. The road victory gave the Owls a 3-0 start in away games, the first time the Owls have won their first three road games since 1953. As a team, Rice is shooting 38 percent from 3-point range and 48 percent overall. Its opponents are shooting just 40 percent from the field. Sophomore guard Marcus Evans is building on his strong freshman campaign and continuing to lead the team in scoring with 21.2 points per game, which currently ranks 40th in the country. Junior forward Egor Koulechov is the team leader in rebounds with 8.5 per game thanks in part to a 35 point, 13 rebound performance in the win over Incarnate Word. The Owls face their toughest test so far this season in a road game at Big 12 foe Texas Tech University this weekend.
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