Owls see room for growth after historic run
The Rice women’s basketball team is still finding its way.
On the one hand, what team isn’t just one game into its season.
But for a Rice team that dominated Nicholls State in a seasonopening win and its first competitive action since a historic 201819 campaign, it might be harder to appreciate how much this team can grow.
“It was good to get the season started. We’ve played against ourselves a good bit,” said coach Tina Langley, whose team went undefeated in Conference USA last season. “We were able to see some good things and some areas that I think we’ll grow in quickly.”
Rice turned an 18-point halftime lead into a 71-47 win Tuesday. On Saturday, the Owls (1-0) host Little Rock (0-1) before a three-game stretch that features SMU (Wednesday), No. 6 Texas A&M (Nov. 17) and Oklahoma State (Nov. 23).
On Tuesday, the Owls’ starting lineup included familiar faces in Nancy Mulkey, Sydne Wiggins, Jasmine Smith and Erica Ogwumike, who was recently named to the Women’s Naismith Trophy watch list. Freshman Lauren Schwartz started at forward.
“I (liked Schwartz’s) toughness and the way she gelled with the team,” Langley said. “You’re trying to put a lineup out there together that plays well to start the game, so right now that’s a good fit for the way we start.”
Schwartz scored 11 points with three rebounds and three assists in 23 minutes (more minutes than anyone but Wiggins) on
Tuesday.
As Langley continues to experiment with her rotation, she hopes the 5-11 Schwartz can help replace the size and scoring lost by former guard Nicole Iademarco.
The fifth-year coach would like to play with four guards to maximize the scoring around Mulkey, and the 6-1 Iademarco enabled her to do that last year en route to becoming the Owls’ all-time leader in 3-pointers made.
But Iademarco now serves as an Owls graduate assistant along with former teammate Olivia Ogwumike.
Still, Rice found another potential scoring threat in streaky sophomore guard Haylee Swayze.
After averaging 4.3 points in just over 13 minutes per game last year, she led the team with 22 points in 17 minutes on Tuesday. She shot 4-of-7 (57 percent) from behind the arc.
“It felt good,” Swayze said. “I think that’s just a testament to our team and our chemistry and how we play together, so I had the confidence to take those shots.”
Langley is confident that Rice will find its stride by the time conference play starts about midseason. But she’d like to figure out her ideal rotation before then to be able to build on last year, when two of the team’s four losses came in its first two games of the year (Texas A&M and UCLA).
Tuesday’s game enabled her to experiment early. All 14 players saw the court for at least four minutes, including the entire freshmen class.
“We hoped that we could come out and get out to a good lead and make sure that we had an opportunity to see everyone together in different lineups,” Langley said. “With five freshmen, you’re trying to figure out who plays best with whom and what that fit is on the court.”
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