Saturday, March 6
Houston, TX
4 PM
University of North Texas
75
at
66
Rice
UNT Victory at Rice Stops Owls’ Win Streak at 24
3/6/2021 6:57:00 PM | Women's Basketball
HOUSTON – North Texas women's basketball capped the regular season with a 75-66 triumph over Rice to end the Owls' streak of two dozen home wins versus Conference USA opponents as Quincy Noble scored a game-high 27 points and Emma Villas-Gomis had a career-high 15 points Saturday inside Tudor Fieldhouse.
The win gave North Texas (13-6, 10-4) its 10th league victory of the season to mark only the sixth time in program history the team has achieved double-digit wins in the 38 years of playing a conference schedule.
N'Yah Boyd joined Noble and Villas-Gomis in double-figure scoring with 13, while Madison Townley corralled a team-high 12 rebounds. The Mean Green shot a season-high 88-percent from the free throw line and outrebounded Rice (16-3, 12-2 C-USA) 40 to 36, the first time UNT bettered their opponent on the boards since Jan. 15.
"I thought our response was very good today," head coach Jalie Mitchell said. "We kept our head; we were less emotional today and managed the game a lot better. You would have thought there is a bunch of juniors and seniors out there."
A Villas-Gomis layup and 3-pointer from the top of the key with less than three minutes remaining in the game stretched the UNT lead to 66-57 before Rice scored five straight. North Texas clung to a 66-62 edge with 1:59 on the clock before Boyd and Townley each hit a jumper to double the advantage to 70-62. Free throws by Boyd and Noble in the final seconds sealed the Mean Green win, their first victory over the Owls in the last nine tries. Rice had not lost at home versus a league opponent since LA Tech was victorious March 1, 2018.
"I just wanted to beat them; we all wanted to beat them," Noble said. "I didn't play my best game Thursday, so today my teammates helped uplift me, and my coaching staff invested in me. Emma sealed off for me to get to the lane, and the team worked well together. I don't think I would be able to get those drives without my posts sealing."
Noble connected on a pullup in the paint and a 3-pointer from the right wing to give UNT an early 5-2 advantage. A three by Jazion Jackson seven minutes in had the Mean Green up, 10-7, and in the waning seconds Noble raced against the buzzer to put in a layup for a 16-9 UNT lead.
North Texas rattled off eight straight points to begin the second quarter, capped by a banked in 3-pointer by Boyd. Tommisha Lampkin found a cutting Noble for a layup, Jackson converted a steal into a layup, and Destiny Brooks drilled a three from the top to hand North Texas a 31-14 lead with three minutes to play until the half.
Rice scored the first six points of the third quarter on the way to a 14-2 run to close the margin to 40-36. An and-one by Villas-Gomis pushed the lead back to seven before a Noble jumper and a baseline three from Boyd stretched it out to 48-36.
"We had huge minutes from Emma," Mitchell said. "She did a really solid job on (Nancy) Mulkey. We knew that that's where they were going to go and again, that's a lot of credit to Emma on the job that she did today."
"This feels amazing," Villas-Gomis said. "We executed the game plan. It was challenging, but we did it."
"This is a great win with some awesome momentum going into the tournament. We want to build on it," Mitchell said.
Up next, the Mean Green will compete in the Conference USA Championships beginning Wednesday, March 10. Brackets will be released Saturday evening.
The win gave North Texas (13-6, 10-4) its 10th league victory of the season to mark only the sixth time in program history the team has achieved double-digit wins in the 38 years of playing a conference schedule.
N'Yah Boyd joined Noble and Villas-Gomis in double-figure scoring with 13, while Madison Townley corralled a team-high 12 rebounds. The Mean Green shot a season-high 88-percent from the free throw line and outrebounded Rice (16-3, 12-2 C-USA) 40 to 36, the first time UNT bettered their opponent on the boards since Jan. 15.
"I thought our response was very good today," head coach Jalie Mitchell said. "We kept our head; we were less emotional today and managed the game a lot better. You would have thought there is a bunch of juniors and seniors out there."
A Villas-Gomis layup and 3-pointer from the top of the key with less than three minutes remaining in the game stretched the UNT lead to 66-57 before Rice scored five straight. North Texas clung to a 66-62 edge with 1:59 on the clock before Boyd and Townley each hit a jumper to double the advantage to 70-62. Free throws by Boyd and Noble in the final seconds sealed the Mean Green win, their first victory over the Owls in the last nine tries. Rice had not lost at home versus a league opponent since LA Tech was victorious March 1, 2018.
"I just wanted to beat them; we all wanted to beat them," Noble said. "I didn't play my best game Thursday, so today my teammates helped uplift me, and my coaching staff invested in me. Emma sealed off for me to get to the lane, and the team worked well together. I don't think I would be able to get those drives without my posts sealing."
Noble connected on a pullup in the paint and a 3-pointer from the right wing to give UNT an early 5-2 advantage. A three by Jazion Jackson seven minutes in had the Mean Green up, 10-7, and in the waning seconds Noble raced against the buzzer to put in a layup for a 16-9 UNT lead.
North Texas rattled off eight straight points to begin the second quarter, capped by a banked in 3-pointer by Boyd. Tommisha Lampkin found a cutting Noble for a layup, Jackson converted a steal into a layup, and Destiny Brooks drilled a three from the top to hand North Texas a 31-14 lead with three minutes to play until the half.
Rice scored the first six points of the third quarter on the way to a 14-2 run to close the margin to 40-36. An and-one by Villas-Gomis pushed the lead back to seven before a Noble jumper and a baseline three from Boyd stretched it out to 48-36.
"We had huge minutes from Emma," Mitchell said. "She did a really solid job on (Nancy) Mulkey. We knew that that's where they were going to go and again, that's a lot of credit to Emma on the job that she did today."
"This feels amazing," Villas-Gomis said. "We executed the game plan. It was challenging, but we did it."
"This is a great win with some awesome momentum going into the tournament. We want to build on it," Mitchell said.
Up next, the Mean Green will compete in the Conference USA Championships beginning Wednesday, March 10. Brackets will be released Saturday evening.
Players Mentioned
Point Guard
/ Women's Basketball
Guard
/ Women's Basketball
Point Guard
/ Women's Basketball
Forward
/ Women's Basketball
Guard
/ Women's Basketball
Forward
/ Women's Basketball
Forward
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