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Rice Basketball rolls past Saint Thomas in home opener

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Rice basketball notched their first win of the 2022-2023 season on Thursday night, rolling past Saint Thomas in their home opener.

Rice basketball couldn’t get back on the court soon enough after their season-opening debacle against Pepperdine on Monday. The team that took the court that evening wasn’t hitting shots and had no answer for a team that was. The Owls looked much more resilient in their home opener against Saint Thomas, taking an early lead and holding it for the duration. In 40 minutes of action, Rice never trailed.

Travis Evee got the scoring started with a layup, then got the ball right back with a nice defensive play on the baseline on the ensuing defensive possession. It was one of three turnovers the Owls forced in the first three minutes of play, sparking an early 14-3 run.

More: Rice Basketball Season Preview

Saint Thomas responded shortly afterward with a 9-0 run of their own, scoring from all three levels as they tested a Rice defense that was briefly without Max Fiedler, who left the game for a brief time but was able to return and started the second half.

Leading by 12 at the break, Rice held serve in the second half. The Owls gradually grew their lead, cycling in a host of players as they secured their first win of the 2022-2023 season on their home court. 11 different players saw action. Quincy Olivari led the team with 12 rebounds and Travis Evee topped the scoring with 27 points.

Between the Pepperdine loss and Thursday’s big win, Rice was able to get a lot of different players on the court, something head coach Scott Pera noted as a big plus in the team’s young season. “Those guys are going to start settling in,” he said. “Hopefully Tuesday night at Middle [Tennessee] won’t be so much a deer-in-the-headlights. We’ll say ‘we know what this is like. We know we need to do. Let’s go.”

Player Spotlight | Travis Evee

While Rice didn’t shoot particularly well from distance as a team on Thursday, Travis Evee was the exception. The junior guard drained seven three-pointers on just 10 attempts, a 70-percent clip from distance. That barrage from downtown was one shy of the school record, eight, matched most recently by Carl Pierre at Marshall last season.

“He was on fire,” Pera said, adding that he left Evee in the game just long enough to get the potential record-tying shot, which missed.

Aside from Evee, the team as a whole shot .368 from three, .250 if you exclude Evee’s contributions. Rice basketball is going to need a lot from Evee this year to get to where they want to go. Thursday served as a not-so-subtle reminder that he’s more than capable of being the sparkplug the Owls need.

Final Box | Rice 85 – St. Thomas 48

Up Next | Full Schedule

In an odd scheduling quirk, Rice basketball actually plays their first conference game in less than a week. The next time they take the court will be on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at Middle Tennessee with tipoff scheduled for 6:00 p.m. After that, they’re back in Houston to how the Owl Invitational, playing three games next weekend: Fri. (vs Georgia Southern), Sat. (vs Western Michigan) and Sun. (vs HCU)

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 132 Rice Football vs UTEP Recap

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Rice football got the job done in a must-win home game against UTEP. Was it proof of things to come as the Owls seek a bowl berth?

There was a lot at stake for Rice football this week in their penultimate home game of the 2022 season. The result hung in the balance until the final minutes, but the Owls took care of business at home to earn win number five. From the good to the bad, Matthew and Carter sift through the win over UTEP and assess where the team stands right now on this week’s show.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 132.

Episode Notes

Housekeeping

  • Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice. Every little bit helps.
  • Please support us on Patreon. Be the first to get the inside scoop on what’s going on with Rice football and stick around for even further analysis. That includes practice updates, analysis and more. Your support matters and makes The Roost better.
    Become a Patron!

Rice Football vs UTEP game recap

  • Except for the turnovers, the offense seems to be rounding into form.
  • Is TJ McMahon a capital “G” Good quarterback? His improvement over the season has been noticeable
  • Christian VanSickle has been fantastic
  • The Rice defense has been better than it feels on third down, but not great in key moments
  • What’s at stake in the weeks to come? How good should/can we feel about this team?

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

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Rice Basketball fall to sharp shooting Pepperdine in opener

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Rice basketball was unable to keep pace with a torrid Pepperdine shooting barrage, falling to the Waves on the road to begin their 2022-2023 season.

Pepperdine visited Houston to open last season, with the Owls winning in commanding fashion. On Monday, the two squads reversed roles. Rice flew to California, put up an early fight, but eventually fell in lopsided fashion to the home squad.

Although the game ended with a one-sided result, it didn’t start out that way, The Waves got the first bucket, a layup to open the scoring before the Owls battled back. There were brief runs through the remainder of the first half, but neither side ever led by more than six points until the final minutes before the break when Pepperdine hit a triple at the buzzer to go up eight.

At that point, there weren’t any signs of panic. Despite the deficit, Rice had seemingly kept pace on both ends of the court with Pepperdine through the first 20 minutes. The Owls’ were aggressive, showcased by quick production from freshman Mekhi Mason who had clearly been given the green light to attack the rim. His first bucket gave Rice a 4-2 lead in the first 90 seconds of play.

More: Rice Basketball Season Preview

Unfortunately for the Owls, that late three to close the first half proved to be a harbinger of things to come. Pepperdine connected on its first four threes in the second half, finishing the game 15-of-30 from long range and a staggering 62.9 percent from the floor, rendering the Owls’ most earnest comeback attempts moot. They simply could not slow down the Waves’ attack.

“Their good shooters didn’t miss shots. Sometimes it’s a make-or-miss game,” Rice basketball head coach Scott Pera said in the aftermath. And as if that wasn’t direct enough, Pera made sure to circle back and own the Owls’ own shortcomings too. “Our defense was obviously less than stellar, horrendous at times.”

The Owls’ own shooting woes only exacerbated the issue. Rice shot just 38.1 percent from the field, struggling to get into a rhythm. Rice defended extremely well against Pepperdine in their season opener last season. That wasn’t the case on Monday resulting in a crushing opening game loss.

“This is something we can’t forget,” Pera said. “This is something that cannot happen. This is [not a] kind of loss this program should be taking.”

Rice will only have a few days to look at the film and move forward, with their home opener coming later this week.

Player Spotlight | Quincy Olivari

Olivari was missed last season, so seeing him back on the court was an encouraging sign in itself. He led Rice in scoring with 15 points, converting 4-of-11 opportunities from three. Olivari had three rebounds and added six assists, tying a career-high.

Final Box | Pepperdine 106 – Rice 67

Up Next | Full Schedule

Rice basketball returns home for their first game at Tudor Fieldhouse later this week where they’ll host St. Thomas in a double-header of Owls’ hoops contests. The women open their season later that evening, also at Tudor. Both games will be available to watch on CUSAtv.

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Last minute rally lifts Rice Football past UTEP for big win

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Rice Football delivers the wining score in the final moments, dashing past UTEP to secure a much-needed win at home.

Thursday’s nationally televised game against all the makings of a bowl-elimination bout between Rice football and the UTEP Miners. The Owls had had the upper hand in the series, particularly at home, winning nine of 12 in Houston. On Thursday night, Rice added one more important victory to the tally. Here are a few immediate reactions from the game:

Withstand the first punch

On the first play from scrimmage, UTEP quarterback Gavin Hardison tried to thread a ball through a mass of blue and gray-clad defenders. Gabriel Taylor was nearly there to meet it, but was unable to make the one-handed stab to force a quick turnover. Instead, UTEP recovered and marched quickly down the field, going 78-yards in 3:13, deflating a defense in need of that instant jolt of confidence.

Down 7-0, Rice was forced to settle for a field goal on their first offensive possession as quarterback TJ McMahon was sacked on third and short inside the redzone. When Rice kicked the ball back to UTEP down by four, it felt like the rubber was about to meet the road. Was UTEP’s early touchdown — just their second touchdown in the first quarter this year — a fluke? Or would the defense figure it out?

The defense responded with a quick three-and-out and their second sack of the day. Then they found their groove. They got pressure. They forced three-and-outs (four on the day). Trey Schuman snuffed out a reverse for a loss of yards. The defense responded to a fumbled punt return with a stop and a 51-yard field goal try after the offense fizzled inside their own five-yard line. For the first time in weeks, they looked good. Not great. But good.

To say the Rice defense was “back” would be overly generous, but the unit that took the field on Thursday night looked a heck of a lot more like the one the Owls have gotten used to seeing in recent years. If they can find a way to get off the field on third down, they might just be dangerous.

Return of the big play

On the other side of the ball, the offense responded in kind. Rice had four pass plays of 15+ yards in four quarters against Charlotte last weekend. They reached that total just three minutes into the second quarter against UTEP and continued to gain yards in chunks. Bradley Rozner reached the century mark for the fifth time this season.

The Owls ended the game with 502 total yards and a slew of big plays. There were eight pass plays of 15+ yards and five run plays of 10+ yards. The offense was legitimately explosive.

What made the performance particularly compelling was the sheer quantity of contributors. Rozner, Luke McCaffrey, Isaiah Esdale, Kobie Campbell and Jack Bradley each had critical catches that extended drives or scored points. Cam Montgomery, Juma Otviano, TJ McMahon and McCaffrey each made big plays on the ground. Uriah West had his first touchdown as an Owl. Eveything just seemed to come together.

And then… the dagger!

The steady emergence of TJ McMahon

When McMahon took the field against UTEP for his eighth consecutive start, he reached a place no quarterback had gone before under Bloomgren at Rice. The previous record for consecutive starts (seven) was held by Shawn Stankavage, who led the way in the first seven games of Bloomgren’s tenure at South Main in 2018 before being injured.

McMahon already led all Rice quarterbacks under Bloomgren in passing touchdowns entering this game. He added two more to up his Rice total to 20. He also leads all of Bloomgren’s passers in interceptions, including an inexplicable additional tipped-pass pick against UTEP, a recurring nightmare that Rice fans can’t seem to escape.

After the Charlotte loss, McMahon said his job this week was “to make sure this game doesn’t beat us twice.” He did that tonight, leading his team down the field with regularity with a bit more of a boost from the running game than he’d had in recent weeks.

It’s been clearly established for several weeks now that Rice had its guy. As McMahon continues to progress, the hope for the future builds.

Breathing room

Two weeks ago, Rice football was 4-3. Being a game above .500 and two wins away from securing bowl eligibility was a breath of fresh air for the Owls, who have fought through their fair share of hardships to get to that point.

That was two weeks ago, and it feels like the program has been through a much more circuitous journey than one could have imagined in just a fortnight’s worth of time. Splitting a two-game homestand against Charlotte and UTEP was disappointing, considering the success Rice football has had to this point. But even still, the Owls have earned three chances to clinch a bowl berth.

The Roost Podcast: Stay tuned for the game recap this week – Rice Football vs UTEP

It’s not time to start booking tickets to spend Christmas in Hawaii or the holiday season in the Bahamas quite yet. But the situation is objectively more positive than it could have been had Rice not found a way to win this football game, and win it in the manner they did. The Owls have been far from perfect this year, but they have been resilient.

Following a loss, Rice football is 4-0 this season. And now instead of being forced to grapple with the real possibility of their one-time storybook season ending in a nightmare, Rice has hope again. Hope can be a dangerous this at times, but right now, it’s exactly what the Owls need. That, and one more win down the stretch. But they’ll focus on that final W tomorrow.

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The Roost Podcast | Ep 131 Rice Football vs Charlotte Recap

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Rice football was blasted at home by a one-win Charlotte team, leaving lots of questions and plenty of bad feelings following the disappointing loss.

There were a lot of adjectives used to describe the product Rice football put on the field this past Saturday against Charlotte. Not many of them were positive. Not only did the Owls lose outright as two-touchdown favorites, but they were manhandled in all three phases by an interim coach-led 49ers squad, leaving lots of questions. We did our best to unpack the game and assess the damage in this week’s show.

You can find previous episodes on the podcast page. For now, give a listen to Episode 131.

Episode Notes

Housekeeping

  • Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast on your platform of choice. Every little bit helps.
  • Please support us on Patreon. Be the first to get the inside scoop on what’s going on with Rice football and stick around for even further analysis. That includes practice updates, analysis and more. Your support matters and makes The Roost better.
    Become a Patron!

Rice Football vs Charlotte game recap

  • Is it time to worry about the Rice defense following back to back games allowing 40+ points
  • Special teams has a bad day across the board
  • The offense wasn’t nearly as bad, but it wasn’t effective enough
  • Where’d Juma go? The Owls’ surprise running back stud from the Louisiana Tech game saw just five carries and minimal usage.
  • How much should this change our perception of the team?
  • What’s at stake in the weeks to come?

Where can you find us?

Download and subscribe to The Roost Podcast on any of your favorite podcast providers. The show is available on iTunes, GooglePlay, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn and PodBean. Please consider leaving a review wherever you listen.

Subscribe on Patreon for exclusive Rice football recruiting updates, practice notes and more.

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