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The Rice Thresher
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by Jason Gershman thresher editorial staff
This year, the clock struck midnight before the Owls could rediscover their magic touch. Rice's season came to an end in the semifinals of last week's Western Athletic Conference tournament in Tulsa, Okla., when the Lady Owls lost to eventual tournament champion Texas Christian University 76-58. Holding Rice back was what has been the team's greatest foe all season: poor shooting. In the quarterfinals, defense, intensity, and hustle somehow carried the Lady Owls to a 60-56 overtime win over the University of Nevada despite shooting just 26 percent from the field. But Rice couldn't overcome another weak shooting effort against TCU. A 32 percent shooting outing, coupled with the loss of junior all-WAC defensive team center Daneesh McIntosh due to an illness, were too much for the Lady Owls to overcome against the Horned Frogs, who will face Pennsylvania State University tomorrow in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The March 7 game between the fourth-seeded Lady Owls and the fifth-seeded Nevada Wolfpack was a game between two familiar teams - Rice had defeated Nevada 57-55 at Autry Court just six days earlier. The Tulsa version of the game was much the same: a low-scoring, defensive battle. The Lady Owls were 8-of-43 from the floor in the first half but entered the locker room trailing by just two points, 22-20. They continued their strong defense in the second half and trailed 50-47 with nine seconds remaining in regulation when junior guard LaToya Brown nailed a deep three-point shot to send the game into overtime. "In the huddle, coach drew up the play and it was exactly like a high school play I must have run 50 times my senior year," Brown said. "I was excited about the play." Freshman Lindsey Maynard scored five of her team-leading 11 points in overtime. "Lindsay's the one who stepped up and gave us the big shots," head coach Cristy McKinney said. "She got everything on her own, she made a good drive and she's very good at that." In winning the first overtime game in the 11-year history of the WAC women's basketball tournament, the Lady Owls broke at least one tournament record. Their 83 field goal attempts were the most ever taken by a team in one game. The Lady Owls' 26 percent shooting percentage was their lowest in any victory this season. "This was an ugly, ugly game," McKinney said after the game. "I'll be the first to admit it. But what I like most about our team is that we're playing hard. "I've told our team we couldn't shoot in the 20s and win, but I was wrong. We found a way to do that today. I sure don't want to find a way to do that again. Nevada played hard and I hope our defense was part of the reason they struggled." Then came the semifinals. The Lady Owls had lost both season meetings with TCU by more than 15 points, and the third matchup with the Horned Frogs was no different. Rice cut what was once a 15-point TCU lead to just five with 7 minutes, 57 seconds to play before the Horned Frogs nailed three straight three-pointers to put the game out of reach. Mayndard and senior Kenya Tuttle led the Lady Owls with 16 points each in the 76-58 loss. Tuttle also led the team with 12 rebounds in the final game of her Rice career. "I didn't want it to be my last game," Tuttle said. "I tried helping my team as much as I could. We gave them way too many open looks and we couldn't match them on the other end." McIntosh's absence was noticeable. During the regular season, she ranked ninth in the WAC in rebounding with 6.4 rebounds per game and was 14th in steals. With McIntosh out, TCU forward Kati Safaritova dominated inside, scoring a game-high 18 points. "We missed Daneesh McIntosh today," McKinney said. "She tried to play but she was very sick. I'm not saying that we win with her, but I think it's a different story with her in because she means 10 fewer points given up on the defensive end. She just couldn't go." The Horned Frogs went on to defeat the University of Hawaii in the championship game. "The bottom line is that we got beat by a better basketball team," McKinney said. "We continued to struggle on the offensive end. We don't make shots when we get them, don't make smart decisions all the time. It caught up with us today. I thought our kids played hard and we made a run at them."
WNIT leaves Lady Owls out For the first time in four seasons, the women's basketball team will miss postseason action. Rice was not among the 64 teams invited to the NCAA tournament Sunday or the 32 teams invited to the Women's National Invitation Tournament Monday. The Lady Owls ended the season with an 18-12 record and a Ratings Percentage Index ranking of 75 out of 316 NCAA Division I colleges and universities. More than half of the 32 teams in the WNIT are ranked below Rice in the RPI. The Lady Owls didn't expect an invitation to the Big Dance, but they were disappointed to not make the WNIT. "The NIT picked 17 teams with higher RPIs than ours," head coach Cristy McKinney said. "I don't know what they're looking at, whether it's wins against top 50 teams or whatever. Some of these teams have records against top teams just as bad or worse than we do." Texas Christian University received an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament by virtue of winning the Western Athletic Conference tournament and the University of Hawaii was invited to the WNIT, the WAC's only other postseason bid. Rice and Southern Methodist University (17-12, 77 RPI), were left on the outside looking in despite the fact that each team has had postseason success in the recent past. Both Rice and SMU pulled off first-round upsets in last year's NCAA tournament. But the Lady Owls realize the danger of leaving their postseason fate in someone else's hands. "We didn't get the job done on the court," head coach Cristy McKinney said. "It put us in a position where a committee decides our fate. I hope our players are angered by this and that next season we will get the job done on the court." - Jason Gershman
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