Rice Basketball jumped out to a sizable early lead but couldn’t sustain it, faltering late in a damaging road loss to Charlotte.
Fresh off a much-needed conference win over ECU, Rice basketball came out hot in Saturday’s road tilt against Charlotte. Denver Anglin got the Owls started with consecutive threes then Jacob Dar contributed the next seven points as the Owls raced out to an 11-point lead in the span of five minutes of game time.
The Owls’ breakneck scoring pace would push that advantage to as many as 16 points in the first half before Charlotte started to find their rhythm offensively. The 49ers cut their deficit to six points at the half and engineered a 10-0 run early in the second period and the game was on.
More: Rice Football: 2025 Recruiting Class Analysis — Offense
Charlotte would lead by as many as seven in the second half, but never more as both sides swapped smalls spurts of scoring. Every time the 49ers tried to pull away, Rice had an answer, primarily driven by the aggressive ballhandling and scoring ability of guard Trae Broadnax with timely threes from Alem Huseinovic mixed in.
Rice kept the game within two possessions for most of the final few minutes but Charlotte won the battle of free throws late, holding on to win by three and send the Owls’ back to the loss column.
Final Box | Rice 71, ECU 60
FINAL | Charlotte 78, @RiceMBB 75 pic.twitter.com/INJxU41Ja7
— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) February 8, 2025
Key takeaway | Out-executed
Rice basketball did a lot of things well against Charlotte on Saturday, shooting better than 50 percent from three and outshooting Charlotte from the field. They didn’t turn the ball over very often and largely stayed out of foul trouble. But they lost.
Rice made one three-point shot in the final nine minutes. Charlotte made four.
Rice missed four free throws in the final 21 seconds. Charlotte missed one.
In a single possession game, those small variances make all the difference. Ultimately the Owls’ unraveling at the end of the first quarter essentially eliminated their margin for error. To some degree, that encapsulates the rough last month this team has had. It hasn’t been a slog of completely bad basketball — there’s been a lot of good — but that good hasn’t shown through in those make or break moments.
Charlotte entered Saturday in dead-last in the AAC standings. To only be a game ahead of this team is now a frustrating reality for a Rice basketball squad that will soon have to begin to worry about the possibility of a play-in game in the conference tournament.
Up Next: vs North Texas (Tues, Feb. 11)
