Women trying to improve as season comes to close

By Yan Digilov     2/26/09 6:00pm

With its win over the University of Tulsa on Friday, the women's basketball team put together consecutive home wins for the first time since the beginning of the season. It is difficult to say, though, if the Owls (7-20, 2-11 C-USA) have accomplished the main objective that most coaching staffs carry throughout the year: Be better when you finish than when you started.

Part of that difficulty comes because of the squad's split personalities on the court. An analysis of the teams that sit in their win column may shock anyone who stayed with them through the 11-game losing streak that ended almost two weeks ago.

For the winning personality, the victories have been sweet. In the second game of the year, last-place Rice downed Prairie View A&M University, a team that is currently sitting atop the Southwestern Athletic Conference expecting an NCAA tournament invitation in a few weeks.

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The game that preceded the losing slide was equally impressive. Rice was coming off of an embarrassing 31-point loss against the University of Texas-San Antonio and shocked the Tudor Fieldhouse crowd with a near perfect 10-point victory over George Washington University on Jan. 5. The Colonials are currently sitting in third place after suffering only three losses in the competitive Atlantic 10 Conference.

The Owls would be looking much better in Conference USA themselves if basketball exhibited any transitive properties. After falling to Rice on Feb. 14, the University of Tulane defeated the University of Southern Mississippi and the University of Central Florida, which are currently tied for first and second place, respectively, in the conference. Tulsa (7-19, 3-11 C-USA) also received a push two days after falling to Rice on Friday with an impressive win over the University of Houston, the other second-place team in the conference.

But when it comes down to performing on a regular basis, or even performing marginally well for consistent stretches, Rice has clearly fallen short.

"I just want us to play consistently well, like I know that we can," senior guard Maudess Fulton said. "We have had sparks late in the season where we just clicked on all cylinders - offense, defense, talking and getting back. If we can do that at the end of the season, because this is the time, I feel like we can play with the best of the teams."

In her final year wearing Rice's colors, Fulton has accepted the role of consummate senior and has been one of the few factors the Owls have been able to count on all every game. On Sunday, she and senior forward Emery Carter played their final game on the Rice campus. However, Southern Methodist University, which recently climbed to the top of C-USA, kept Rice from topping the record two-game streak set at the start of the year.

The game was not only senior night, but was also televised on national television. However, it seemed that these factors riled up nerves, not excitement, in the home team. The game was long-gone by the time the halftime whistle blew, and SMU (17-10, 10-4 C-USA) walked off the court with a 41-18 lead.

"It just didn't compute," head coach Greg Williams (Hanszen '73) said. "We tried to stress to our team that we are dedicating this last game to our seniors. We want to send them out with a win in their last home game at Rice University. ... With those other factors involved, how could we not play with energy?"

The match was starkly antithetical compared to the previous two games, in which stingy defense and high shooting percentages took the contests. With a the zone defense against the Mustangs, the Owls turned off the great communication that they had been recently using and let go of several costly assignments. On the offensive side, they gave up 15 turnovers before halftime, and no one finished with double-digit scoring.

This downturn was made all the rougher because Rice was coming off one of its most exhilarating wins of the year. Despite the Sunday blowout, the two previous games did remind Rice of the strengths they have been exhibiting in practice but have struggled to implement during game time.

"I think we have more confidence in ourselves, in our game," Fulton said. "A lot of bench players are feeling a lot more confidence," she added, after the bench combined for 21 points against Tulsa.

The most encouraging statistic on the night, however, was freshman point guard D'Frantz Smart's 12 assists. Since returning from injury, Smart has been taking part in limited practices and is still trying to regain a rhythm that led the team on all fronts in the beginning of the season.

Despite the volatile play from all parts of the court throughout the season, the squad has at least found the point of their game that can act as a springboard for competitiveness throughout.

If the Owls are to succeed, "it is going to have to be [because of] our defense," Fulton said. "Every time that we have gotten wins or played particularly well is when we played good defense and just talked. When everyone is talking, moving their feet and playing good defense, it really spurs on our offense. If we can really play good defense consistently for two halves, then I think we can play with anybody."

Discovering the key to energizing the team seems to be the only evident forms of progress the coaching staff has been able to make to this point, but the final road trip of the regular season would be a great place to change that. They face East Carolina University on Thursday and fly to West Virginia to play Marshall on Saturday.

The trip is the furthest of the season and one that most C-USA teams avoid taking on in one week. Plus, both teams are known for stepping up play at home, while Rice has yet to win a game outside of Main Street all year.

"We've got the road trip from Hades - you can't get to ECU and Marshall from here," Williams said. "Every team in the league just cringes when they have to make that trip. When I saw the conference schedule I just threw my hands up: 'Are you kidding me?' That's a coach's nightmare to have to make that trip right before the conference tournament," which will being next Thursday in New Orleans, La.

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