Women’s Basketball Travels to Rice Looking for Third Straight Win

HOUSTON (Jan. 18, 2023) – After winning back-to-back games for the first time this season, North Texas returns to the court looking for three straight wins when they travel to Houston to take on Rice for the first time this season.

It will be the 22nd all-time meeting between the two programs in a series that dates back to the 1986-87 season. It is the ninth consecutive season UNT and Rice square off at least twice in a season as the Mean Green head into the matchup having won three straight for the first time in series history.

Rice heads into the matchup at 12-4 overall and 3-4 in C-USA play this season. The Owls went 9-0 in non-conference play to open the season before starting conference play 1-4. Coming into the contest, the Owls have won back-to-back games over UTEP and UTSA.

Quick Hitters

Senior Quincy Noble leads UNT offensively with 17.1 points per game this season, a figure that is third Conference USA. Noble has scored in double figures 15 times this season for North Texas and is tied for 10th in program history with 1080 points in her collegiate career.
Junior Tommisha Lampkin has been one of the top post players in C-USA, sitting second in the league with 7.6 rebounds per game and third with 1.53 blocks per contest.

Freshman Ereauna Hardaway ranks sixth in C-USA with a 1.6 assist-to-turnover ratio on the year. The freshman leads the Mean Green with 3.8 assists per game.
UNT has two of the top eight players in C-USA in blocked shots this season in Lampkin and sophomore Aniyah Johnson. Lampkin sits third in the league with 1.53 blocks per game while Johnson is eighth at 1.2 blocks per contest.
In total, the Mean Green rank third in the conference with 3.47 blocks per game as a team.
UNT has been one of the top teams in C-USA in distributing the basketball this season. The Mean Green rank third in the league with 14.3 assist per game in conference-only games this season.
In C-USA matchups, UNT has two of the top seven assist leaders in the league in Hardaway at 4.3 assists per game (5th) and sophomore Kendall McGruder at 3.7 APG (7th).
Through the first seven C-USA games this season, sophomores Kendall McGruder and Aniyah Johnson have turned their game to a new level. In conference-only games this season, both McGruder and Johnson are averaging in double-figures with McGruder scoring 13.1 points per game and Johnson averaging 12.4 points per contest.
Last week against FAU, McGruder had a career-day with 29 points, five steals and three assists to bring her scoring average this season to 8.1 PPG.
Johnson is now averaging 7.4 rebounds per game in C-USA contests. That figure is tied for the second-most in conference-only games this season.
Through 16 games this season, the rebound battle has been an indicator of success for UNT. The Mean Green are 2-9 this season when losing the team rebounding battle and are 4-1 when outrebounding their opponents.

Series History

Rice leads the all-time series 14-7, but the Mean Green have won each of the last three meetings between the two teams including taking home a pair of wins last season.
From Feb. 2015 to March of 2021, the Owls took home 11 of 12 matchups in the series before UNT stopped the streak in 2021.
The current three-game win streak against Rice is the longest in program history for the Mean Green.

Rundown on Rice

Rice comes into the matchup at 12-4 overall and 3-4 in conference play.
The Owls have four players averaging double figures this season, led by 12.9 points per game from Ashlee Austin.
Katelyn Crosthwait, who averages 10.1 PPG, is one of the top 3-point shooters in C-USA. She comes into the matchup ranked second in the league in 3-point attempts, 3-point FG percentage, and 3-pointers per game.
Rice is the top shooting team in C-USA, leading the conference shooting 45.9 percent from the floor this season. The Owls also rank 12th in Division I with 16.12 free throw makes per contest.

A Look Back at FIU

Fueled by a tenacious defensive effort that saw UNT allow just three points in the second quarter and only 45 in the game, the Mean Green earned back-to-back wins for the first time this season with a 71-45 victory over FIU Monday afternoon.
Just two days after posting its largest deficit of the season against FAU, the Mean Green followed it up in a big way with a 26-point victory over the Panthers.
The three points allowed by the Mean Green in the second quarter are the least for a Division I opponent since the NCAA changes from halves to quarters prior to the 2015-16 season.
Johnson led the way for a balanced UNT offense with 14 points and nine boards, narrowly missing out on her second career double-double. Noble also scored in double figures with 10 points while 10 of the 11 players who saw action in the contest scored at least two points.

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