Tulsa
at Rice (WAC)
Rice Women Use Late Run to Upend Tulsa, 61-56
2/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Feb. 12, 2005
Houston - Rice's Valeriy Berezhinska and Krystal Frazier each scored 16 points and the Lady Owls outscored Tulsa, 36-24, in the second half to post a 61-56 come-from-behind victory in Western Athletic Conference play at Autry Court.
It was a tale of two halves for Tulsa (14-8, 6-6 WAC), as the Golden Hurricane followed up a 46-percent shooting performance in the first half with a 27-percent effort in the second half. TU led for nearly 36 minutes, but Rice (15-8, 8-4 WAC) took advantage of TU's cold shooting with several late runs to seize control of the game. Tulsa is now 0-3 in February after entering the month 14-5 overall, and has lost three straight games for the first time this season.
Tulsa led for a majority of the second half and seemed to be in control of the game. With 7:54 remaining in the game, TU led 49-42 heading into a timeout. However, Rice caught fire and used a 10-4 run over the next 2:56 to get back into the game. After pulling to within two points at 52-50, Rice's Michelle Woods grabbed a rebound on the offensive end and tied the game with the put-back. A few minutes later, Eshombi Singleton broke free for an easy lay-up to give the Lady Owls its first lead of the game, 54-53.
Tulsa stayed close, but missed free throws and lay-ups doomed any chance of a comeback victory. Sophomore Jillian Robbins had a chance to tie the game with 0:58 remaining, but could only connect on one of the two shots. After Rice took a three-point lead, Tandem Mays missed a lay-up and Singleton put the game out of reach with a pair of free throws in the final seconds to cap an 11-4 run in the final minutes.
Tulsa connected on just 14 of 25 free throw attempts for 56-percent, while Rice used the charity stripe to its advantage during its come-from-behind run by hitting 12 of 15 shots, all in the second half, for 80-percent.
Irving paced three Golden Hurricane players into double figures with a career-high 14 points, while junior Megan Moody added 12 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. Robbins finished with 11 points. TU out-rebounded Rice, 38-34, and out-shot the Owls, 38-percent to 37.7 percent.
Michelle Woods joined Berezhinska and Frazier in double figures with 11 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds.
Moody sparked the Golden Hurricane in the first half with 11 points and Tulsa scored the game's first basket and led the entire period. TU built a 10-point advantage midway through the period, scoring 20 points in the paint, and getting five points off seven Rice turnovers. Irving came off the bench and gave Tulsa a boost with eight points, including a three-pointer in the final seconds of the half to give the Hurricane a 32-25 lead at intermission.
Tulsa shot 46.4 percent in the first half and the Hurricane's stingy defense limited the Lady Owls to just 30.6 percent from the field. Woods kept Rice in the game with three straight three-pointers and tallied nine points to lead the Lady Owls in the opening period.
