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Rice Basketball Roundup: MBB and WBB split vs Charlotte

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Both Rice basketball teams were in action against Charlotte on Thursday. Here’s a brief rundown of how the men and women faired and what’s next for both.

Rice Basketball

Rice basketball overcame a slow start and had to hang on late, edging the Charlotte 49ers at home for their fourth consecutive Conference USA win.

It was a slow start for Rice basketball at Tudor Fieldhouse on Thursday evening. The Owls traded blows with the Charlotte 49ers throughout the first half, but neither side led by more than four and ties were the common thread. The Owls shot just 20 percent from three before the break and were dominated on the boards, with Charlotte owning a 19-12 advantage. Still, it was a close game at the half.

Rice found their shooting stroke early in the second half. The Owls exploded with a 21-6 run, taking a 15-point lead and putting the pressure back on Charlotte. They responded, thundering back and cutting the Rice edge to two points with 5:43 to play. With 14 seconds to go, the game was tied.

Familiar with the pressures of a close game late, Rice got the shot they needed down the stretch — this time in the form of free throw from Quincy Olivari — and some key defensive plays from Max Fiedler and others to close it out and earn their fourth consecutive conference win.

Final Box | Rice 65 – Charlotte 63

Key takeaway | Finding a way to score

Three-point shooting has been the Owls’ bread and butter for years under head coach Scott Pera, but Rice has recently added another level of versatility to its arsenal. In an upset win over North Texas, Rice attacked the lane, trusting their superior guards to create opportunities and capitalize.

Against Charlotte, Rice did not intentionally sidestep the long ball like they did against North Texas, but they did fall back on what worked that night, attacking the basket and trusting Travis Evee and Quincy Olivari to win inside.

A bad shooting night no longer guarantees a loss. A slow start no longer necessitates a furious comeback and near-perfect execution. They’re not perfect, but the Owls are adapting, and that’s a crucial development as they move forward.

Up Next: vs UAB – Saturday, Jan. 28 at 2:00 p.m.

Rice Women's Basketball

Rice women’s basketball never found its rhythm against Charlotte on Thursday night, falling to the 49ers on the road.

Winners of three straight, Rice women’s basketball faced a tough road test on Thursday night against Charlotte. The Owls got on the board first with a three from Destiny Jackson, but it would prove to be just one of four triples the team made in the game, shooting a lowly 21.1 percent from deep and underscoring a difficult shooting night away from home.

Both teams were deadlocked at 15-15 after the first quarter. They traded runs in the middle two frames. Charlotte led by as many as nine. Rice’s largest lead was three. Back and forth the teams went with Rice cutting down the large deficit to just one point with about two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. Charlotte responded with a three, putting Rice into comeback mode in the final seconds.

Rice would get close a few times, helped by inconsistent free throw shooting from Charlotte, but it would not be enough. Although they got back within three with seven seconds to play, they could not rally on the road.

Final Box | Charlotte 66 – Rice 61

Key takeaway | Free throw woes

Charlotte let Rice hang around in this game because of free throw struggles of their own, but Rice had a legitimate shot to steal a game in which they did not play their best if they’d just made more free throws. Rice shot 65.4 percent from the charity stripe on Thursday, one of their four worst shooting performances from the line this season.

Poor shooting from the field (32.8 percent) and poor free throw shooting are hard to overcome when both droughts happen on the same night, particularly on the road. Thursday just wasn’t their night.

Up Next: at UAB – Saturday, Jan. 28 at 1:00 p.m.

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Conference USA Basketball 2023: Late-January Roundup

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Conference USA Basketball is in the thick of the conference slate. Here’s where each team stands in late January.

Team NET  KenPom Record
Charlotte 93 107 13-7 (4-5)
FAU 18 36 19-1 (9-0)
FIU 249 249 9-11 (3-6)
LA Tech 158 154 11-9 (4-5)
MTSU 107 115 13-7 (6-3)
North Texas 62 70 16-5 (7-3)
Rice 140 147 14-5 (5-3)
UAB 83 77 13-7 (4-5)
UTEP 167 180 11-9 (4-5)
UTSA 324 327 7-14 (1-9)
WKU 180 168 11-9 (3-6)
Kenpom, NET, and standings reflect games as of 1/23/2023

Key Storylines

Owls up

Winners of three straight and 13 of their last 16, Rice basketball continues to climb upwards in the standings and the ratings. Their most recent victory, an impressive upset of North Texas in Denton, put the rest of the conference on notice. Their continued ascent to sixth in the league in both Kenpom and NET suggests the Owls’ ascent might have some lasting presence and wasn’t just one good night on the road.

Top of the standings tussle

At this point, the top seed in the conference tournament and potentially NCAA berth is Florida Atlantic’s to lose. The Owls remain undefeated in conference play and the schedule is crossing through the halfway point. Can FAU run the table? It will be tough, starting with a matchup this coming Thursday against Middle Tennesee, currently third in the conference standings.

Middle of the pack movement

The end of January and the beginning of February will serve as time to thin the middle of the pack going forward. Only so many teams will be in the race for a first round conference tournament bye in a few weeks time, making the next few games for each all the more important. Keep your eyes on three intriguing matchups over the next few days: LA Tech vs UAB and Charlotte on Rice on Thursday as well as UAB and Rice on Saturday.

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Rice Football Recruiting: ’24 WR Owen Carter commits to Owls

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The 2024 Rice Football recruiting class has its first commitment. Wide receiver Owen Carter has made his pledge to the Owls.

The calendar hasn’t hit the traditional signing day for the 2023 class yet, but the 2024 Rice Football recruiting class has already added its first pledge. Cy Fair wideout Owen Carter has committed to the Owls.

Carter was part of an early wave of offers the Owls issued early last year. He picked up his offer in August, one of just six offers in the 2024 class which Rice extended before its season kicked off in September.

Rice was the first and only FBS program to offer Carter so far, securing his commitment before the beginning of camps and additional recruiting opportunities would have occurred down the line.

“The belief [the Rice staff] had shown in me was unmatched by any other school I had talked to,” Carter told The Roost. “I believe I can make a positive impact on a program on the rise and felt the energy and brotherhood in the locker room was something I wanted to be a part of.”

Although Carter is its first commitment, the 2024 class is still in its very early stages. The Owls have offered around a dozen players thus far and that number will continue to rise following events like the junior day Rice hosted this past weekend. For now, kicking off January with a commitment from a player this staff coveted from the beginning is a positive start.

Premium: Rice Football Recruiting Offer and Commitment Tracker

There’s a lot to like on tape when it comes to Carter and his skillset. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound pass catcher can turn on the jets when he needs to, but stands out the most for his ability to go up and get the football. Being big is half the battle. Carter displays and ability to use his size and win one-on-one against defenders.

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Rice Football 2022 Defensive Player of the Year: Josh Pearcy

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A first-year team captain, Joshua Pearcy did not disappoint, leading the team in sacks on his way to becoming our 2022 Rice Football Defensive Player of the Year.

Having too many good players is a coach’s dream. That’s one of the reasons head coach Mike Bloomgren wasn’t too worried about how the preseason rotation on the edge would play out. Regardless of who “won”, Rice would be better. Joshua Pearcy emerged from the competition and parlayed that into an outstanding season worthy of being named our 2022 Rice Football Defensive Player of the Year.

Through camp, the conversation at Pearcy’s position centered around how the defensive staff would get both Pearcy and fellow edge rusher Kenneth Orji on the field. Pearcy was coming off a tremendous 58 tackle, four sack performance when the competition began to heat up in earnest this spring.

It was during those spring sessions that defensive coordinator Brian Smith began to drop some breadcrumbs. “He’s playing better than he ever has,” Smith said of Pearcy, going on to detail what sort of packages they could use to get both him and Orji on the field. In the end though, not only did Pearcy win the job, his rapid ascent just continued to reach new heights.

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Pearcy was named a captain prior to the season, in part because of his impressive work on special teams. Special teams coordinator Chris Monfilleto singled him out as one of the key voices of the unit. Pearcy had tied for the team lead in special team tackles the season before.

In addition to his special team’s work, Pearcy became a leader of the defense too. He finished fourth on the team in tackles in 2022, the most among any defensive lineman on the roster. His 10 tackles for a loss and 6.5 sacks put him in the top seven in both categories among all Conference USA defenders. He had become a force.

“We got to stop the run [and] make the plays that we’re supposed to make,” Pearcy said of the defense heading into the regular season finale. “But when it comes down to those plays where talent takes over, beyond just doing your job, you got to make those plays too.”

Those plays, the ones that prove differential, game-changing. Those are the plays that Pearcy gravitated to the most.

More: Offensive Player of the Year — Luke McCaffrey

It’s no coincidence that Pearcy started in what was arguably the most emphatic defensive play of the season, cementing an upset win over UAB for the second consecutive year. The Blazers had the ball on the Rice 35-yard line with time ticking under one minute to play. After a sack by Trey Schuman on first down, Pearcy was credited with a forced fumble on the next play, forcing third and long.

UAB nearly converted a game-winning hail mary to upend the Owls last season, but Rice was saved via penalty. This time, it was Pearcy, who sacked quarterback Dylan Hopkins on the final play of regulation to secure the win and enable Rice to move to 3-2 on the season.

Pearcy would go on to make more plays, including tying a season-high seven tackles with one sack and 1.5 tackles for a loss in the Owls’ Lending Tree Bowl matchup with Southern Miss. All three of those measures tied or lead the team outright. In another big moment, Pearcy showed up. Because that’s what great players do. The answer to the preseason musings had been solved. No matter what Rice football chooses to do, they’d better make sure Josh Pearcy is on the field.

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After slow start to C-USA play, Rice Women’s Basketball is back in gear

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It was a strenuous start to conference play for Rice women’s basketball, but a three-game win streak has the Owls back on track.

The first five conference games Lindsay Edmonds coached in with Rice women’s basketball did not go well. Managing a depleted roster bereft of depth and besieged by injuries contributed to an 0-5 start, culminating in a four-overtime defeat on the road against Charlotte.

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