HOUSTON – The Texas State women's basketball team (23-10, 14-4 SBC) lost to the Rice Owls (23-9, 10-6 C-USA), 71-60, inside Tudor Fieldhouse in the opening round of the 2018 Women's National Invitation Tournament (WNIT) on Thursday night. The loss ends a historic season for the Bobcats.

The Bobcats made the WNIT for the second time in school history. The 2007-08 team made the program's first appearance, defeating Prairie View A&M in the first round by a score of 84-83 before falling to Texas Tech in the round of 32, 82-49. The 23 wins for the Bobcats set the highest win total for a Texas State team in the Division I era.

"What a year," head coach Zenarae Antoine said. "This team competed so hard all season and the product speaks for itself. The amount of records, team and individual, that this team set shows just how special this team is. This senior group is tremendous and have set a great foundation for the future. I am sad that the season ended, but I am excited for the future of this program."

The game in Houston represented the last game in the maroon and gold for four seniors: Taeler Deer, Zelor Massaquoi, Ericka May and Ti'Aira Pitts.

Deer scored 13 points in the contest but struggled to get going, shooting 6-of-20 from the floor. She was unsuccessful in all five of her 3-point tries. Deer closed out her Texas State career as the second player in program history to accumulate 1,000 career points and 400 career assists. She is second all-time in career assists with 429, including a school-record 213 during her senior season. Deer ranks ninth in all-time scoring with 1,386 points. In each of the last 20 contests she scored in double-figures, including four straight games of 20+ points to close out the regular season and 2018 Sun Belt Conference Championship. Finally, Deer earned Texas State's first Sun Belt Player of the Year distinction, was named first team all-conference and the SBC tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

May tallied 10 points and nine rebounds, including five on the offensive end of the floor. The five extra possessions created by May turned into eight points for the Bobcats. Texas State grabbed 15 offensive rebounds as a team and scored 17 second chance points, compared to the 10 points scored off of 11 offensive rebounds for Rice. May ends her four years at Texas State ranked fifth on the career list for rebounds, pulling down 836 misses in her career.

Pitts scored eight points while grabbing seven boards in 36 minutes of action. Pitts etched her name in the school record books for blocks in a season, fifth with 37 rejections, and career blocks, second with 77. Massaquoi netted two points, both from the free throw line, and grabbed rebounds off of the bench.

Outside of the senior group, Brooke Holle matched Deer's 13 points. The sophomore guard made 2-of-4 shots from behind the 3-point line. Toshua Leavitt scored 12 points and registered a season-best five rebounds in the loss.

For Rice, TXST had little answer for Erica Ogwumike, the younger sister of Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike, both first overall draft picks in the WNBA. The Pepperdine transfer scored a game-high 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. She scored in all phases of the game, converting 9-of-15 shots and 2-of-5 from distance.

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