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Jan. 6, 2006

Final Stats

Houston -

Krystal Frazier matched her career high with 25 points and Lauren Neaves had her fifth double-double of the season as Rice defeated Southern Miss 77-64 Friday at Autry Court in the Owls' Conference USA debut. The win takes Rice to 5-7 overall and 1-0 in league play, while Southern Miss drops to 4-9 and 1-1.

Frazier, a junior guard, connected on four three-pointers and six shots from the field on the way to matching the career-best she set against Nevada on March 9. She also grabbed four rebounds and had three assists, two steals and a blocked shot.

Neaves, the C-USA preseason player of the year, dropped in 11 points and hauled down 11 rebounds to go with three blocked shots. Sophomore guard Kadie Riverin had career highs in assists (8) and rebounds (7) to go with her 10 points.

"We struggled a bit in our pre-conference schedule," said Rice head coach Greg Williams. "This game will hopefully get us back on track and put us where we need to be as conference play kicks in."

Southern Miss shot out to an early 5-0 lead on two buckets by Ashley Boehnel before Frazier's basket and a trey by Amber Cunningham evened the score. Amber Eugene hit a jumper with 11:16 left in the first half to give the Golden Eagles their final lead of the game at 20-18. Frazier knocked down two three-pointers to stretch the Owls' lead to 30-22, and a pair of Riverin free throws sent the team into the half with a 38-30 edge.

Rice shooters hit three straight treys to open the second half, and a Neaves jumper put the Owls up 49-30 with 17:44 remaining in the game. Cunningham hit another trey to up the lead to 20 at 52-32, and Frazier's lay-up after a steal gave the Owls their biggest lead of the game at 22 with 13:44 to go.

Southern Miss chipped away at the lead, cutting it to 14 with 7:18 on the clock after a Kelsey Gurganus lay-up, but Rice maintained pressure on both ends of the court and used a three-pointer by Catherine Flores and buckets by Riverin and Frazier to make it 73-54 with 4:00 remaining. The Golden Eagles used unrelenting backcourt pressure to fight back in the closing minutes, but a lay-up by Tiondra Wright with 31 seconds left sealed the win for the Owls.

Eugene had a double-double for Southern Miss, scoring a team-high 17 points and nabbing a team-best 10 boards. Ashley Harrell added 14 and Kendra Reed 13 in the losing effort.

Rice hosts the University of Central Florida Sunday at 1 pm.