Maya Hawkins scored 20 points and assisted on six other baskets to lead Rice to its first women's basketball victory of the year with a 58-46 win over Sam Houston at Bernard G. Johnson Coliseum Thursday night.

Angela Beadle led Sam Houston with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Shernise Robertson added 10 points. The Bearkats record now stands at 4-4 while the Owls are 1-7.

Rice led 19-10 after the first period and were up by as many as 13 points, 48-28, after a three-pointer by Gabrielle Stanton with 4:27 remaining in the third quarter.

Sam Houston fought back to cut the lead to six, 47-41, at the end of the third quarter. A lay-up by Beadle four minutes into the fourth period put the Bearkats within four, 47-43. But Rice outscored the Kats 6-0 in the next four minutes and eventually got the lead back to double digits.

“We just couldn't score when we needed to,” Sam Houston head coach Brenda Welch-Nichols said. “We went only 5-for-10 at the line and missed eight of our nine three-pointers and that hurt us.”

The Owls hit 42 percent from the field (21-of-50) including six three points. Sam Houston shot 38.5 per cent, going 20-of-52. The Bearkats were 1-of-9 from beyond the arc.

Shadijah Moore scored eight points off the bench and Kamry Ohr added seven points.

Sam Houston travels to Manhatten, Kansas, to play Kansas State Saturday night. The contest versus Rice was the Bearkats final non-conference home game of the season.