Women lose at Colorado

By Michael Kidd     12/3/13 6:00pm

This past weekend, the Rice Owls women's basketball team traveled to Boulder, Colorado and participated in the Omni Hotels Classic Tournament. The Owls went into this tournament with an overall record of 3-4. The Owls were playing on shortened rest after a 79-74 overtime loss against Sam Houston State University on Tuesday night.

In the first game of the tournament, the Owls defeated Samford University, 57-52. Senior forward Jessica Kuster scored 14 points for the Owls while the Rice bench contributed twenty total points to secure the victory. Freshman forward Jasmine Goodwine grabbed eleven rebounds and added nine points in a game where ten different Rice Owls scored. With the victory, the Owls improved to 4-4 on the season and advanced to play in the championship game against the University of Colorado, Boulder. The Buffaloes came into the game a perfect 5-0 on the season. 

The championship game was played in the Coors Event Center in Boulder, Colo. Nov. 30th. Despite the Owls' best efforts, they fell short to the Buffaloes, 75-58. The Owls played well for the first half, trailing only by four points at halftime. However, midway through the second half, Colorado went on a 14-0 run which put Rice in an eighteen-point deficit that proved to be too much. Kuster had a game-high thirty points for the Owls, shooting nine of 16 from the floor and making 11 free throws. This was the third time that Kuster has scored 30 or more points in a game this season. Junior forward Megan Shafer had a team-high seven rebounds and added eight points for the Owls. Rice's record fell to 4-5 on the season with three of those losses coming against ranked teams: Baylor University, Michigan State University and Colorado. 

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The Owls return back home to face Texas State University on Thursday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m. The Bobcats from San Marcos, Texas are part of the Sun Belt Conference and are coming into the game with an overall record of 1-5. Despite losing five games in a row, the Bobcats have been led by senior center, Ashley Ezeh, who leads the team with 11 points per game. Rice will continue to look for Kuster who has recorded a nation-leading seven double doubles thus far in the season. 

The Thursday night game will be the 13th time the two teams face off. Rice leads the all-time series 9-3. The Owls defeated Texas State on the road last year 73-61. Kuster had 19 points in that matchup while Rice managed to hold Bobcats' center Ezeh to only three points. Following this game, the Owls will be off for nearly two weeks until they host the University of Houston Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. at Tudor Fieldhouse.

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