A tough day from the floor made it impossible for Rice Basketball to keep up against Tulane, which handed the Owls their fifth straight AAC loss.
Rice basketball faced an uphill battle on Saturday afternoon in their quest to snap a four-game losing streak in conference play. Caden Powell opened the scoring but it was the visiting Tulane Green Wave who delivered the first run, rattling off 11 unanswered points.
The Owls wouldn’t be flustered that easily, though. Denver Anglin started the home team rally with a three, one of his four triples in the first half and Jacob Dar quickly came to his aid, leveling the score back at 28 apiece in the final minutes of the half. Seven straight points from Aaron Powell to close the period would send Rice to the break with a one-point advantage.
More: Rice Basketball 2024-2025 Midseason State of the Program
Tulane would open up a lead early in the second half as Rice struggled from the field. The Owls made six field goals after halftime, seeing a close, physical game get a little bit more out of reach as the Green Wave began to make baskets at better than a 50 percent clip and the Owls just couldn’t keep up.
After taking a modest two-point lead to start the half, Rice would trail for the remainder of the contest. A pair of threes with 20 seconds to play proved too little too late.
Final Box | Tulane 82, Rice 71
FINAL | Tulane 82, @RiceWBB 71 pic.twitter.com/T0wGc7YnKG
— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) January 25, 2025
Key takeaway | Free Throws Unfullfilled
The free throw issues Rice basketball has experienced this season have been well documented. Rather than rehash that conversation, Saturday’s loss drew attention to a rather unusual statistical line for the team this season. Rice entered this contest fourth in the AAC with 24.5 free throw attempts per game, averaging just shy of one less attempt per game than league-leading Temple (25.9).
It’s not just that Rice is inconsistent from the charity stripe, second worst in the AAC at 68.0 percent. That problem has been exacerbated by the volume of free throws they take. The Owls ran into that problem in this game. They nearly double-up Tulane from the line, taking 33 foul shots to their 17 attempts. That’s almost always a recipe for success, but it wasn’t this time given the number of misses.
Getting to the line is almost always a good thing. For Rice basketball, that general truism might finally be up for debate.
Up Next: at South Florida (Tues, Jan. 28)
