Rice Owls lose to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 64-61

Posted: December 2, 2011, 11:25 p.m. CST

HOUSTON, TX (Tudor Fieldhouse) -- The Rice Owls battled the Islanders of Texas A&M - Corpus Christi Friday night in the second game of the Owls' annual Gene Hackerman Invitational. Despite a solid effort, the Owls lost to the Islanders 64-61 in front of an announced crowd of 403 fans.

"I think we hustled a lot more than we have been," Jessica Goswitz, junior Owls guard said. "But, we just couldn't pull it together at the end."

Goswitz made a three-point basket at the 5:47 mark of the game to give the Owls a 61-59 lead. However, the did not score any points the rest of the game.

Down the stretch, poor defense, turnovers, and 0 for 7 shooting from field goal doomed the Owls' chances to win the game.

"We just made some defensive mistakes down the stretch and didn't finish enough shots," said senior guard Amenemope McKinney.

Jessica Jammer drained a jump shot at the 2:21 mark of the second half to give Owls a 62-61 lead. A lead the Islanders (3-5) did not relinquish.

In the first half, the Owls' trapping defense caused chaos and resulted in the Islanders committing 19 turnovers. However, the Owls failed to capitalize on the turnovers.

"We had enough opportunities in the first half to be way ahead," said Owls head coach Greg Williams. "We missed so many easy shots; so many layups. We forced 19 turnovers; but, we have to capitalize on them."

Owls' senior post Opal Taskila and senior wing Briana Hypolite each scored 9 points in the half to help the Owls lead the Islanders 41-35 at the break.

Neither team valued the ball well in the game. The Islanders turned the ball over a whopping 31 times while the Owls weren't much better with their 27 turnovers.

"We had twenty-seven turnovers and many of those were unforced," Coach Williams lamented. "Many of those were just careless. Poor fundamentals. Poor decisions.

"I just feel like we're not responding to what we're trying to get done."

The Owls (4-4) were without star player Jessica Kuster who missed the game due to a foot injury.

"When your best player goes down it's always difficult," McKinney said. "But, we just went out there and tried to play as best as we could. We didn't think about what we didn't have. We just had to go out there with what we have and play as strong as we could."

McKinney admitted losing tonight's game is frustrating.

"I think it's extremely frustrating. Any time you're in a tournament, especially your own tournament, you want to make it to the championship game. To lose the game the way we lost this one is definitely frustrating.

The Owls will play Oregon State in the consolation game of the Hackerman Invitational Saturday afternoon / evening. Tip is set for 5 p.m.