Rice Basketball led at the break but couldn’t hold off Tarleton State in the second half as the visitors ran away with the game in the second half.
Tarleton State opened the game with the first points, but Rice basketball quickly fired back with a three-pointer from Jalen Smith to jumpstart a back-and-forth contest in the early goings on Thursday night. Tarleton was able to amass a handful of meager leads, but it was Rice who controlled a good portion of the first half, at least until Tarleton guard Dior Johnson started to heat up.
Johnson scored 15 of his 29 points in the first half, nearly erasing a seven-point Rice lead on his own and bringing the game back within one point at halftime. Rice offered up some protest at the beginning of the second frame, only to see Tarleton turn to guard Cam McDowell who picked up the scoring baton from Johnson and kept going.
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McDowell finished with 19 points, all of which came in the second half as the visitors a 21-4 run which turned a slim Rice lead into a massive deficit which would prove to be too much to overcome. Tarleton defeated Rice for the first time in program history.
Rice Basketball falls to 2-4 with the loss. The Owls are 2-2 at Tudor Fieldhouse this season.
Final Box | Tarleton 90, Rice 74
Key takeaway | Compounding Defensive Woes
Oh how quickly early season losses can quench an off-season’s worth of hope. And while the results have been disappointing for Rice basketball, it’s their defensive stumbles that have to be the most concerning.
It’s more understandable that this team would struggle to shoot well as the new pieces were integrated into the offensive system, but the defense was supposed to be what this team could hang it’s hat on. That hasn’t been the case in the early portions of this non-conference slate.
Tarleton shot 59 percent from the floor in this game, marking the fourth straight opponent to shoot better than 49 percent so far this season. The Owls have played six games. That rate has to come down in a hurry if Rice is going to have the sort of season they were expecting.
Up Next: GEICO Coconut Hoops vs Kennesaw State (Mon, Nov. 24 at 3:30 pm)
