Marshall University Athletics
Marshall University
Rice
Decisive Third Quarter Fuels Rice Win over Marshall
3/2/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Final Stats
HOUSTON, Tx. - Nicole Iademarco had 25 points on 7-for-12 shooting, including 4-for-6 from 3-point range and 7-for-8 from the free throw line to lead host Rice to an 84-74 win over visiting Marshall Thursday evening at Tudor Fieldhouse.
The Owls improved to 17-11 and 8-9 in Conference USA with the win, while the Thundering Herd dropped to 12-16 and 4-13 in the league with its ninth-straight loss.
Despite the loss, Marshall clinched the 12 seed in next week's Conference USA Tournament in Birmingham, Ala. (March 8-11) due to FIU's (5-22, 3-14) 88-53 loss Thursday evening to Middle Tennessee. Marshall owns the head-to-head tiebreaker between the two schools due to a 70-52 win in Huntington on December 30, 2016.
Shani Rainey also had 19 points (7-for-10 shooting) for Rice, while Jasmine Goodwine posted 13 and Wendy Knight contributed 10 and a team-high seven rebounds and five steals.
Marshall was led by Shayna Gore's 19 points (7-for-11 shooting) and Talequia Hamilton notched her fourth career double-double with 17 points and 13 rebounds. She also posted four steals. Kiana Evans also chipped in 12 points.
Marshall won the rebounding battle 35-30 and had a 19-12 advantage in second chance points. Rice won points in the paint (34-24) and points off turnovers (25-12). The Owls hounded the Thundering Herd into 23 turnovers for the contest and doubled up the visitors in steals (12-6).
Marshall grabbed a 33-29 lead at halftime, thanks to a second quarter where the team made 58.3 percent of its field goals (7-for-12).
However, Rice responded with a 31-19 third-quarter edge, as it returned the favor with an 11-for-19 (57.9 percent) shooting performance, which also included makes on five of its nine 3-pointers.
Asheika Alexander drilled a 3-pointer to pull Marshall within 61-58 with 8:14 left in the game, but Rice then went on a 14-4 run to put the game away on a Goodwine layup with 2:28 left.
The Thundering Herd's McKenzie Akers made three 3-pointers to give her 133 for her career, which moved her into third place on the school's all-time list. Natal Rosko (136, 1994-98) sits second. Shayna Gore also made three (116 career) and moved past former teammate Norrisha Victrum (2012-16) for seventh, one behind AJ Johnson (2013-15) for sixth.
Hamilton had one block and how has sole possession of seventh (88 career) on the school's all-time rejections list.
"I thought we played a really good first half, but gave up 21 points in the first six minutes of the second and dug ourselves too big of a hole. We didn't handle it well enough to win the game against a tough Rice team. I'm thankful that we are fortunate to be included in the conference tournament field but we need to play well for longer stretches on Saturday (at North Texas) in preparation for the tournament."
The Thundering Herd will travel to Denton Saturday for a 4 p.m. ET/3 p.m. CT matchup against North Texas (11-17, 8-9). The Mean Green fell at home to WKU, 77-55, Thursday evening.
