STAFF REPORTS
The Texas State womens basketball team made a great comeback attempt at Rice Friday night but was unable to complete the effort, falling to the Owls 73-66.
Texas State’s Diamond Ford led all scorers with 28 points, one shy of her career-high.
The key moment of the game came with a minute to go when the Bobcats, trailing just 65-60, were playing tough half-court defense looking for a key steal. Rice’s Christal Porter hit a fade-away jumper and was fouled on the play by Ashley Ezeh. Porter made the free throw, giving the Owls a 68-60 advantage and the Bobcats never could recover.
Early on in the game, four early turnovers by Texas State allowed Rice to take a quick 7-0 lead. The Bobcats then responded with five points of their own to make it 7-5.
The first half continued to be a story of runs as the Owls was able to push the lead back up to 22-11 before the Bobcats responded with an 8-2 run of their own to trim the Owls’ advantage to 24-19.
Unfortunately for Texas State, turnovers and rebounding seemed to plague them as the Owls’ size (eight players at 6-feet or taller) proved to be a big advantage when Rice responded to Texas State’s run by going on a 15-4 stretch of their own, making it 39-23 late in the first half.
The Bobcats switched up their defensive looks just before halftime, enabling the team to go on a 7-0 run and get back in the game. Rice went to the locker room with the 41-30 lead
Ford got the Bobcats closer, scoring the first 10 points for Texas State in the second half. As a team, Texas State hit seven of its first 11 shots after the break.
The game went back and forth for much of the second half, with the lead staying between five and 11 points for the Owls. With just over a minute to go Texas State’s Demi Clinch hit a straight-away three to make it 65-60 and the Bobcats had hope before Porter’s traditional three-point play put the game on ice for Rice.
Texas State, which fell to 4-4 on the young season, plays its next two on the road at Kennesaw State and Belmont University before returning home to play Houston Baptist University at Strahan Coliseum on Dec. 28. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.
