Offense goes into deep freeze at bad time
COLLEGE STATION — Rice had been able to count on its defense through most of its historic season coming into Friday’s first-round NCAA Tournament game against Marquette.
But it was the Owls’ offense that faltered late, creating the opportunity for the Golden Eagles to overcome a nine-point fourthquarter deficit and ultimately outlast Rice 58-54 in overtime at Reed Arena.
“I think it was just a game of runs and toward the end it definitely was their pace,” Rice guard Erica Ogwumike said. “It was really fast paced at the end. It took us awhile to try to get it back into our type of pace.”
A 12th seed, Rice (28-4) entered its third-ever NCAA Tournament with the sixthranked scoring defense in the country, a statistic the team validated early in the defensive battle.
The Owls held No. 5 seed Marquette (27-7) to eight first-quarter points. A Golden Eagles team that led the Big East in 3-point shooting was limited to just 18.2 percent behind the arc all game.
While Marquette’s pressure and pace frustrated Rice, both teams began to find their respective offensive rhythms in the second half.
“All season we really tried to focus on defense, and it kind of showed in our statistics,” Ogwumike said. “We really pride ourselves on getting stops. At times, crucial times, we also had our lapses.”
Rice held Marquette to 33.8 percent shooting in the game, a defensive effort that allowed the Owls to take a slim third-quarter lead. But every time the Owls appeared poised to take control, they slipped into scoring droughts invited by turnovers.
“I think just poise,” Ogwumike said. “I think a lot of the things that we messed up were in our hands. And we haven’t had much experience. It is not an excuse, but we haven’t had much experience in those tight games like that.”
Of Rice’s 25 regular-season wins, just one came by five points or less. Of its three prior losses, the closest margin was nine points.
Rice led by seven points with about four minutes remaining. An Ogwumike jumper opened up the Owls’ largest lead of the game at nine with less than three minutes left.
“When it came down to executing down the stretch, we were trying to get into hand-off situations because we didn’t feel they had been guarded well,” Rice coach Tina Langley said. “We’ve rushed a few things. I think we lost a little bit of our patience in those moments where we had been patient earlier and waited later in the shot clock to make those decisions.”
That impatience opened the door for Marquette’s 9-0 run that tied the contest at 52 with 66 seconds left. Rice couldn’t counter. The Owls might have lost in regulation had center Nancy Mulkey not raced out to the perimeter to block a potential game-winner with three seconds remaining.
Marquette’s Amani Wilborn netted a jumper 90 seconds into overtime. Another jumper two minutes later by teammate Allazia Blockton virtually put the game out of reach as Rice didn’t score its first points of OT until Ogwumike’s basket with 51 seconds left to end a seven-minute scoring drought that extended back into the fourth quarter.
Making its first Tournament appearance since 2005, Rice had its school-record 21-game winning streak snapped with the loss.
Ogwumike had a gamehigh 22 points Mulkey posted 18 points plus nine rebounds and five blocks.
“There’s a few things we could have done differently, but really proud of not only this game but of the season and how hard they worked all season,” Langley said.