HBU Huskies women's basketball kicks off season with 83-54 loss to Rice Owls

By Robert H Kelly
Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved

HOUSTON, TEXAS (November 25. 2020) The HBU Huskies women's basketball team led the Rice Owls after 10 minutes of play and trailed their cross-town opponents by four at the half, however a second half scoring drought left them short at the end of the game, as they dropped a 83-54 to the Owls at Tudor Fieldhouse in Houston.

HBU jumped out to a 17-16 lead after the first quarter, with N'Denasija Collins accounting for seven of the Huskies' 1st quarter points. The Owls rebounded in the second quarter, outscoring the Huskies 14-9 to take a 30-26 lead at halftime. Then Rice got their bearings, outscoring the Huskies 20-18 in the third quarter and 24-10 in the final period in route to downing HBU.

The Huskies were led by Abbey Sutherland with 15 points, nine of them from three-point range. HBU head coach Donna Finnie stated after the game "I thought Abbey did pretty good defensively and offensively."

Sutherland was joined in double figures by Collins, with 10 points,. Marilyn Nzoiwu led HBU with seven rebounds.

Rice had four players in double figures; led by center Nancy Mulkey with 23 points and 13 rebounds. Also scoring in double figures for the Owls was Arianna McCurry (12 points), Katelyn Crosthwait (12 points) and Haylee Swayze (11 points).

Finnie added, "We knew these were going to be two tough games to open the season (Rice and Texas Tech). We know basically what  we have to work on after today so we got to do a better job and keep looking for improvement. We are not going to see anyone in our conference that looks like this (Rice) or Texas Tech."

The Huskies will next face Texas Tech on Saturday, November 28 in Lubbock with a 2 p.m. tipoff.