Owls lose Wilson in rout of TCU

---

by Alex Chapman

---

Wednesday's game against Texas Christian University was for all practical purposes over when the Owls won the tipoff.

But the teams played it out to finish with a 93-42 Rice victory.

Despite winning the game, the Owls came up on the losing end.

With 6:06 remaining in the game, Charonda Wilson got her feet tangled with TCU point guard Leah Garcia's while bringing the ball up the floor. She fell hard and was unable to leave the court for several minutes.

She was taken for x-rays, and preliminary reports say her collarbone is broken, which would put her out of action for the rest of the season.

She joins what is becoming a very large disabled list, which includes Angelica Smith, Lisa Escobedo, Tonya Green and Taonica Ledet.

The women scored nine of the first 10, 18 of the first 23 and 37 of the first 55 points. And the second half was a layup drill, with Rice scoring 51 to TCU's 18.

The Owls were able to run the fast break to perfection through the game and pressure TCU's offense into taking bad shots.

In sum, we were bigger, stronger, faster, smarter and simply better. The devastation would have been worse if the Owls had not played sloppily in stretches.

Leading the way for the Owls were Tammy McCallum, who had her fourth double-double of the season with 15 points and 11 rebounds, and Stephanie Mundschau, who established career highs in points (20) and rebounds (11).

The Horned Frogs weren't able to even slow Jennifer Hamilton down, but the referee did as she finished with four personal fouls and an incredible 14 points in 15 minutes.

Debi Williams also set a career high in points for the Owls with 11 and added a pair of blocks and innumerable tipped shots. Jessica Garcia added 12 points off the bench.

Rice had 22 layups in all, which is more points than TCU had in the entire game. And that doesn't even include 10 baskets from within two feet of the basket.

Rice has won the last 10 games between the two teams, dating back to 1991.

Earlier in the week, Rice faced the Texas A&M University Aggies. When Texas A&M and Rice met for the first time on Jan. 21, 1975, Texas A&M won by the impressive margin of 99-16. Twenty years later, Rice had narrowed the gap to a relatively small 88-64.

But it's now 1996, and it's a whole new ballgame. Rice defeated Texas A&M in convincing fashion Saturday night, notching an 86-69 victory for the first conference win of the year. The Owls had come tantalizingly close before, falling by only two points to the University of Texas. And in the early going, it appeared the streak would not be broken against Texas A&M.

With 9:17 left, Texas A&M extended its lead to 24-13. But the addition of quick point guard Charonda Wilson added defensive intensity to the game. Rice went on a 16-2 run over the next four minutes. Jessica Garcia scored all six of her points during the run, and Jennifer Hamilton scored six during the run as well. Wilson had five assists and a steal in the run.

The Owls took control from that point, widening the lead to 42-32 behind a balanced attack and aggresive half-court defense.

The Owls never faltered, as Tammy McCallum added 13 of her 17 points in the second half.

Rice simply proved too strong inside for the Aggies, outrebounding them 44-31 and receiving 46 of their points from the frontcourt trio of McCallum (17), Hamilton (16) and Mundschau (13).

Veteran point guard Kim LaLonde scored 13 points and added seven assists as she controlled the game's flow. Gina Cafagna scored eight and Garcia had six to keep the defense from collapsing inside.

Each shooter got hot in turn, leaving the Owls at 50 percent from the field for the game, a total that looks blistering compared to any total but Rice's layup drill against TCU (50.7percent).

This victory was psychologically important for a number of reasons.

It was their first SWC win of the year, coming after three losses to the University of Houston, the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University.

It came against a team that started the year in the Top 25 and still maintains a winning record (11-7).

And it came against a team that Rice has only defeated seven times in 31 games, and their first win in the series since January 1992.

Up next for the Owls is a trip to Baylor (whose only conference victory came against the Horned Frogs) on Jan. 31, followed by games against Texas Tech (on Feb. 2) and Texas (Feb. 7) before coming home for a rematch against crosstown rivals Houston (Feb. 10).

The two conference victories this week leave the Owls with a 9-8 record and a 2-3 record in the Southwest Conference. The Owls have impressed on the defensive side of the ball. They lead the Southwest Conference in steals, rank second in rebounds allowed and third in scoring defense.

They are also ranked third in turnover margin and third in field goal percentage.

This item appeared in the Sports section of the January 26, 1996 issue.

Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights Reserved.
This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of:
The Rice Thresher, Rice University, 6100 Main, Houston, TX, 77005, USA.