Rice Basketball came up one shot short, missing a potential game winner at the buzzer in a narrow home loss to Charlotte.
A layup from Charlotte’s Ben Bradford put the visiting 49ers just ahead of Rice basketball in the opening minutes of their trip to Tudor Fieldhouse on Sunday afternoon. That proved to be representative of how the opening half would go, with Rice spending most of it just a shot or two behind Charlotte, but not much more.
There were five ties and two lead changes in the opening half, with Nick Anderson providing the bulk of the juice on offense for Rice, who would go into the break trailing by just two points. The game would remain close until the middle of the second half when the Owls’ shooting struggles helped contribute to a 10-0 Charlotte run. Rice suddenly found themselves trailing by 15 with the game all but out of reach.
MORE: Rice Basketball Midseason State of the Program
Rice did not go down without a fight, clawing back to within six points on a nine-point run. A late three from Eternity Eguagie got the Owls within two with 36 seconds remaining and Trae Broadnax made it a one point hole with a three-point play.
A heads up defensive play from Broadnax earned the Owls one final shot at the buzzer, but it would not go down. Rice Basketball falls to 7-10 with the loss. The Owls are 5-4 at Tudor Fieldhouse this season.
Final Box | Charlotte 74, Rice 73
Key takeaway | Defending Not Optional
While there has been no singular thread connecting all of the Owls’ losses this season, the step back in their defensive performance has been a frequent culprit. Now through four games of conference play, Rice ranks near the bottom of the league in opponent field goal percentage, a few ticks shy of 50 percent.
That, combined with a a sub-.400 shooting percentage, makes it hard to win basketball games, something Rice has found out all too often this season. This a team that doesn’t have one defining characteristic to hang their hats on when things get hard, which is quite the departure to the defense-first mantra head coach Rob Lanier preaches.
There are flashes of that top tier defense buried deep. Broadnax had a few plays in the closing minutes that came close to swinging the game, but from top to bottom, this roster doesn’t defend well consistently.
With the calendar approaching mid-January, this is likely what this version of Rice basketball is going to be. How the staff and the roster make the most of it will determine whether or not they can be competitive down the stretch or succumb to their maladies enroute to another disappointing finish.
Up Next: at UTSA (Wed, Jan. 14 at 7:00 pm)
