HOUSTON – Rice capped off a stellar 2016-17 campaign in style by winning the Women’s Basketball Invitational (WBI) by a 74-62 margin over the UNC-Greensboro Spartans Sunday afternoon at Tudor Fieldhouse.

WBI All-Tournament Team
Maya Hawkins- Rice (MVP)
Jasmine Goodwine – Rice
Nadine Solomon- UNCG
Mikayla Ferenez – Idaho
Stephanie Kostowicz - Milwaukee

“I couldn’t be more proud of these young women,” Rice head coach Tina Langley said. “It’s such a blessing to be their coach. I’m so tremendously happy for our seniors to be able to go out with a championship.”

Rice (22-13) won its first ever postseason title outside of a conference tournament with a balanced scoring effort in which five Owls registered double-figure points, led by senior guard Maya Hawkins (17 points). The Mansfield, Texas, native went out in style by becoming the 17th player in Rice history to surpass 1,000 career points and was named the WBI Most Valuable Player. 

In addition to Hawkins, senior teammate Jasmine Goodwine was named to the WBI All-Tournament Team and scored 13 points on Sunday to finish with 1,211 career points. 

With the win Rice notched its 22nd victory of the season, tying the 1999-00 and 2003-04 Owls’ teams for the second-most victories in a season.

The Owls finished as quarterfinalists in the 2017 Conference USA Women’s Basketball Championship presented by MetroPCS back on March 9.