Rice and Malakoff are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2020, but not for long. The Rice Bulldogs will square off against the Malakoff Tigers at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.
Rice came tearing into Tuesday's contest with 14 straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 30.7 points) and they left with even more momentum. They simply couldn't be stopped as they easily beat Scurry-Rosser 74-35 on the road. With Rice ahead 38-14 at the half, the contest was all but over already.
It was another big night for Saniya Burks, who almost dropped a double-double on 36 points and nine rebounds. That makes it 24 consecutive games in which she has scored at least a third of Rice's points. Aaliyah Nezar was another key contributor, scoring 21 points along with three steals.
Meanwhile, Malakoff waltzed into their match on Tuesday with four straight wins but they left with five. They blew past Kemp, posting a 59-32 win on the road. Given Malakoff's advantage in MaxPreps' Texas basketball rankings (they are ranked 121st, while Kemp is ranked 1264th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Rice is on a roll lately: they've won 17 of their last 18 games, which provided a nice bump to their 20-4 record this season. As for Malakoff, their victory bumped their record up to 29-3.
Rice was able to grind out a solid win over Malakoff in their previous matchup back in January, winning 63-56. The rematch might be a little tougher for Rice since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
