Rice basketball outshot Marshall behind a career-night from Carl Pierre, weathering a late run before pulling away late.
From start to finish, Rice basketball found ways to put the ball in the basket, typically from long range. The Owls had struggled to find a rhythm from three in recent games but snapped out of that funk with an emphatic barrage of triples to take down Marshall on the road.
Marshall took an early 4-3 lead but Rice would take over from there. Travis Evee and Carl Pierre would combine to hit 11 of the Owls’ 12 three-pointers, pushing the Rice lead to double-digits just after the midpoint of the first half.
Last Time Out: Rice Basketball falters down the stretch at WKU
Marshall wouldn’t go quietly. The Thundering Herd cut the Owls’ 12-point advantage midway through the second half to a 58-58 tie with 8:35 to play. Rice didn’t panic. A layup from Max Fiedler followed by a triplet of threes from Evee and Pierre gave Rice a fresh lead before the Owls pushed it back to double-digits with under two minutes to play.
“We weren’t perfect,” head coach Scott Pera. “It’s not always going to be perfect. But every time they made a run, we responded.”
The win moves Rice to 3-2 in conference play, trailing division leader Louisiana Tech by two games.
Player Spotlight | Carl Pierre
Pierre was lights out on Saturday, scoring a career-high 30 points and tying the school record with eight made three-pointers in the game. He always seemed to have an answer to a Marshall run, keeping the Owls at least one step ahead throughout the duration of the contest.
Stat Corner | Sharpshooters
Rice basketball combined two aspects of their three-point shooting game they hadn’t been able to sync up in quite some time. They hit more than eight threes for the first time since December 16 against Incarnate Word and topped 50 percent from three for the first time since December 4 against Jarvis Christian. The Owls would have happily taken the efficiency or the quantity. Getting both in the same game meant trouble for Marshall.
According to Rice, this marks the first time Rice has made at least 60 percent of its three-pointers in a game since Nov. 19, 2016 at Omaha.
Final Box | Rice 87 – Marshall 77
FINAL | @RiceMBB 87 – Marshall 77 pic.twitter.com/mjNu1jvQy9
— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) January 16, 2022
Up Next | Full Schedule
Rice basketball split their brief two game road trip against Western Kentucky and Marshall. Next weekend they’ll return home to Tudor Fieldhouse where they’ll host Old Dominion (Thursday) and Charlotte (Saturday).
