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Rice earns first NCAA berth
Posted: Saturday March 11, 2000 05:29 PM
FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Marla Brumfield scored 27 points to lead Rice past Southern Methodist 71-67 Saturday in the Western Athletic Conference championship game, giving the Owls their first NCAA berth. Rice (21-9) led by as many as 21 points in the first half and 17 in the second half but had to hold off a late rally by SMU (21-8). SMU was trying to secure its sixth trip in the last seven years to the NCAA tournament. Brumfield made two free throws with 35 seconds left for a 67-61 lead, but a basket by SMU's Katie Remke and two free throws by Anika Calvert cut the margin to two with 10 seconds to go. Kirra Jordan made two free throws with nine seconds left. Calvert scored with a second remaining, but Brumfield then sealed the win with two more free throws.
Deidra Rucker led SMU with 19 points while Karlin Kennedy added 13 and had a game-high 14 rebounds. Jenny Cafferty scored 12 for Rice, all on 3-pointers. Brumfield, who scored 16 in the first half, made a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer, and Cafferty added another 3 for an 18-4 lead. After a basket by SMU's Nici Johnson, Cafferty made two more 3-pointers and Kim Lawson added a basket to stretch the margin to 20. SMU's Deidra Rucker had five points in the final three minutes as Mustangs closed to 37-24 at halftime. SMU scored six straight points to open the second half but Rice countered quickly with a 9-3 burst. SMU couldn't get the margin to single digits until a 12-0 run late in the game that cut it to 61-57 with just over three minutes left.
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