Women's basketball loses on road trip

By Michael Kidd     1/27/14 6:00pm

The Rice Owls women's basketball team embarked on a six-day road trip to North Carolina to face East Carolina University and the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. On Wednesday, Jan. 22, East Carolina defeated Rice 53-47. ECU entered the contest with a 15-2 overall record and a home winning streak of 22 straight games. Rice cut the margin to two points late in the second half but did not complete the comeback. Senior forward Jessica Kuster led the Owls with 11 points and 17 rebounds, shooting 2-14 from the field.

On Saturday, Jan. 25, Rice traveled to Charlotte and lost to the 49ers 58-53. The Owls led by four at halftime but shot only 27 percent from the floor in the second half. Kuster earned her 16th double-double of the season with 27 points and 12 rebounds. Kuster is now only 14 points away from breaking the all-time Rice career scoring record of 1,851 points. After consecutive losses, the Owls have fallen to an overall record of 10-9 and 3-3 in Conference USA play.

Kuster said the two road losses this past week came from mental mistakes. She said the team can make a strong run in conference if it plays at its full potential.

---

---

"I think that right now, we lost focus a bit and were [too content] with our [good] conference start," Kuster said. "We are a very capable team and need to get back to how we know we can play. If we do, we can definitely make a run."

Junior point guard Reem Moussa said she was proud of the Owls' defensive effort despite the losses. However, she said there were problems moving the ball on the offensive end of the court.

"I think defensively, we did really well in both games and held the teams to 53 and 58 [points]," Moussa said. "We gave a great defensive effort, [but] our biggest problem was offensively."

Head Coach Greg Williams said the Owls' defense was effective but that he was disappointed in the team's inability to score. He said the team had its chances but did not take advantage of them.

"We played very well defensively and held both teams under 60 in their own gyms," Williams said. "[However], we did [not] shoot the ball very well and couldn't generate a lot of offense to secure the [victories]. We knew it was going to be a challenge, and we had our chances."

The Owls will play Tulane University Wednesday, Jan. 29 at 7 p.m. in Tudor Fieldhouse. Williams said the Green Wave has a high-powered offense, so the Owls will have to play better and protect their home court to win.

"Tulane is an established team and is second place outright with a 5-1 conference record," Williams said. "We traditionally have really great games with them. They have [a lot] of scoring options, making them one of the best offensive teams in the conference."

Williams said he thinks his team will be challenged in the upcoming games on Rice's schedule, but that the Owls are ready.

"Every game is important and every game is a dogfight," Williams said. "We have two big challenges this week against Tulane and then Southern Miss. After that, we travel on the road to Middle Tennessee, the only undefeated conference team remaining. We are preparing heavily for these teams."

Following the game against Tulane, the Owls will stay at home to play the University of Southern Mississippi on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. 

---