Shining light in Houston: Poindexter scores 33

Sports editor Jaralynn Tammi Morellano discusses women’s ups and downs at Rice
The University of Tulsa women’s basketball team faced Rice for another vicious round of conference play and lost 66-78. The loss removed Tulsa from the top three to the fourth in the conference with a record of 7-4. Its overall record moved down to 17-7. Rice moved up to the third spot in conference standings with a conference record of 8-4 and an overall record of 14-9.
The Golden Hurricane’s scoring was led by Temira Poindexter, who scored half of Tulsa’s points Saturday night.
“This was a tough trip, and we knew it was going to be a challenge coming into it,” said Head Coach Angie Nelp. “Our team fought really hard, and we have got to be able to grow from this game and learn to handle the physicality that was put in front of us the entire game. Went used some different scoring options that allowed us to kind of break away from that in the second half. But at the end of the day, we didn’t defend the way we’re capable of defending. This was a tough game for us. But I absolutely believe in this team and believe that we’re going to grow from this. We’re going to learn from this and we’re going to be better. You look at what Temira Poindexter was able to do there at the end of the game, and she was able to give us 33 points. She did a great job and she did a great job of adjusting and finishing at the rim in the fourth quarter, but we’ve got to be able to get a little bit more production all across the board.”
Rice opened up the game with a 9-2 run to take an early lead. They continued to pound down on the Golden Hurricane, leading 7-14 to double the gap halfway through the first period. Tulsa answered back by shoving eight consecutive points in the Owls’ rim. The scoring run was topped off by Caranda Perea to bring Tulsa to a narrow 15-14 lead at the end of the period.
The Golden Hurricane’s small victory over the Owls was brief and it lost the lead. Tulsa started to trail 19-18 and would never hold the lead again for the rest of the game. Both teams had five turnovers, but the Owls outscored Tulsa 26-18. Despite Amira Brown scoring a buzzer-beater three, Rice went into halftime leading 40-33.
Ride led the game by as much as 13 points in the third quarter, but it ended with both teams scoring an even 16-16. The teams went into the fourth quarter 56-49.
A little over a third of Poindexter’s points were scored in the fourth quarter, 12 out of Tulsa’s 17 points being sunk by the junior forward. Poindexter’s offensive efforts were ineffective against the Owls, who got away with 22 points to finish its revenge against the Golden Hurricane.
Tulsa will return to its home turf to play UTSA on Feb. 14 for a special Valentine’s matchup.