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Rice Basketball season comes to an end with AAC Tourney loss to Wichita State

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Rice basketball came out hot but was unable to finish, falling to Wichita State in the first round of the AAC Tournament in Fort Worth, TX.

Shocked doesn’t even begin to accurately describe how Rice basketball must have felt midway through the first half on Wednesday afternoon. The 13-Seed Owls had taken a 17-4 lead over the 12-Seed Wichita State Shockers to start the game. Things were going well. And then Wichita State just could not miss.

Wichita State hit 19 of their final 22 shots of the first half, thundering back from a 13-point deficit to take a 13-point lead at the break. During that stretch, the Shockers shot 86.3 percent from the field. Few could have anticipated quite how quickly the script could have been flipped, even when accounting for the Owls’ inconsistency on defense and a potent shooting performance.

“Basketball is a game of runs, right?” Travis Evee mused when recalling that furious Wichita State rally. “I think we really stayed together. It heightened our focus, our energy to climb back and weather that storm.”

Down by double-digits to start the second half with their backs against the wall, Rice basketball thundered back. Evee knocked down a pair of threes, keying a 12-0 Rice run to turn a potential blowout into a one-point game after Alem Husenovic knocked down a key jump shot.

It truly was back and forth from that point onward with 11 lead changes transpired over the course of the next five minutes and neither team leading by more than two possessions until the Shockers’ Xavier Bell knocked down a fast break layup with six seconds on the clock to put the game out of reach.

With the loss, Rice basketball falls to 11-21 on the season. A streak of back-to-back seasons in which the Owls played in a postseason tournament will come to an end as the program does some soul-searching in hopes of charting a brighter future moving forward.

Final Box | Wichita State 88 – Rice 81

What They’re Saying |

“It’s been a great four years and this one’s going to sting, probably for a while. It’s not the way that we wanted to go out, but I think in about a week or two weeks, whenever this wears off, I’ll really be able to look back and really be thankful for everything that this university has given me, everything that [head coach Scott Pera and Max Fiedler] have given me. I’m gonna miss playing with them. I’m gonna miss putting on the jersey. I’m gonna miss being in the locker room with these guys.” – Travis Evee on his Rice basketball career

Key takeaway | Going the wrong way

In the seventh season under Pera, Rice basketball has officially taken a significant step backward. The Owls finished above .500 under Pera for the second time last season but will finish this campaign 10 games below .500, their worst mark since his inaugural season.

The offense, which has been Pera’s calling card, has regressed from scoring 76.9 points per game last season to 71.7 points per game this season. The defense, a constant source of frustration, ranks 269th in the nation, allowing 75.3 points per game, a number that will worse after allowing 88 points on Wednesday.

“It’s uncanny, the misfortune we had this year,” Pera said, noting the series of close losses and bad bounces along the way.

Pera has built his tenure on the back of steady, gradual improvement. Faced with a tougher league schedule with the move to the AAC and the departure of star guard Quincy Olivari, who led the Big East in scoring for Xavier this season, it feels like that train has jumped the tracks.

Pera’s seventh season ends like many of the ones before it, with him at the podium reiterating “We’ve got to get better defensively.” Seven seasons in and the refrain is the same. And it’s not going to get any easier.

Rice basketball will lose Travis Evee and Max Fiedler this offseason. There is talent remaining on the roster, but the proof of concept of what this could be feels sufficient. At its best, this has been a .500 program under Pera, whose future on South Main is in question. Athletic Director Tommy McClelland has proven amenable to patience in other sports, but that’s come in conjunction with progress. This was a step back — and a significant one at that — one that Pera might not survive.

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Rice Basketball drops Senior Day battle to North Texas

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Rice basketball and North Texas battled back and forth throughout the first half before the Mean Green found another gear and pulled away, handing the Owls a loss on Senior Day.

The latest edition of an intrastate rivalry between Rice basketball and North Texas began with a technical foul against the Owls, dictated by AAC league rules because of shot clocks that weren’t working properly. That malfunction spotted the Mean Green to an early 1-0 lead and seemed to light a fire under the Owls, who didn’t trail for long.

After trading a few early baskets, Rice went on an 11-0 run, erasing a North Texas lead and giving the Owls a two-point advantage. From that point onward, the game was on.

Travis Evee, who led Rice in scoring with 21 points for the game, helped extend the Owls’ lead to as many as five points in the first half. When North Texas leveled the score once more in the second half Rice turned to everyone they could to keep the game within reach, but nobody had much success shooting after the halftime buzzer.

Rice made six field goals in the second half, shooting a dismal 22.2 percent from the floor. No amount of defensive production was going to make up for that level of shooting woe. The Owls end their season on a four-game losing streak heading into the AAC Tournament.

Final Box | North Texas 71 – Rice 55

Key takeaway | Insurmountable shooting slumps

Scoring droughts have been a persistent challenge for Rice basketball this season. There always seem to be a few moments in each game when something gets gummed up in the offense, causing prolonged stretches without points. Often, that’s proved disastrous for the Owls, allowing early leads to evaporate and causing close games to get away from them in the second half.

Against North Texas, Rice has two such instances. In the first half, Rice missed five field goals in a row, falling behind nine. The combo of Evee and Max Fiedler helped right the ship, powering the Owls back to an even game.

The next stretch came midway through the second half. Rice missed eight shots in a row and 12 shots out of 13. That resulted in a span of 10 minutes of court time with two made baskets, transforming a 1-point lead into a 10-point deficit. When Rice was forced to take a timeout with 2:24 on the clock, they had all but run out of time to mount a comeback.

This has been a streaky team all season. They can turn it on and score in bunches, but if they don’t find a way to smooth over their droughts and make them either less frequent or less severe, they won’t be sticking around very long in the upcoming conference tournament.

Up Next: AAC Tournament

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Rice Basketball falters late, falling to USF at home

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The roller coaster ride of this Rice Basketball continued on Saturday as the Owls climbed to a big lead before falling to South Florida at home.

Roller coasters and the current Rice basketball season have more in common than one might care to admit. Fresh off a blowout loss against SMU, Rice went found itself leading top-seeded South Florida by 13 at halftime. Travis Evee was in the zone. Max Fiedler was controlling the paint. Keanu Dawes delivered a myriad of clutch moments, coming off the bench for the first time this season.

But, as head coach Scott Pera would be the first to say, it’s a 40-minute game. And that roller coaster? For every up, it has a down. The drop coincided with the second half whistle. USF hit five of their first six threes after the break, erasing the Rice advantage and taking their first lead just minutes in the second frame.

USF’s 23-5 second half run quickly erased the Rice lead and turned the game into a dogfight down the stretch. Rice would tie it up at 65-65 with 2:36 remaining in the second half. USF hit one more three to go back in front. Rice was out of baskets. Despite leading for the entirety of the first half and never trailing by more than two possession, Rice fell, again.

“We need to find consistency. Our players have been a roller coaster in their individual performances and our team has been a rollercoaster because of it,” head coach Scott Pera said. “We cannot find a consistent performance across the board from all our guys. That’s been the story.”

Final Box | USF 69 – Rice 65

Key takeaway | Good, but not good enough

A visibly frustrated Scott Pera sat down for his postgame press conference following his Rice basketball’s drubbing at the hands of SMU. He said all the right things and made promises to do everything he could to get his team prepared for their upcoming game against league-leading South Florida.

And while Pera took full responsibility for that defeat, he made it clear this team wasn’t going anywhere if its leaders, specifically Max Fiedler and Travis Evee, didn’t play better. “We’re not winning in this league if Max and Travis aren’t playing well,” he declared.

For the most part, the Owls’ stars led the way. Fiedler scored three of the Owls’ first four field goals from the floor. Evee followed immediately afterward, scoring seven straight points on his own to give Rice a 10-point lead over the AAC’s top team.

Fiedler finished with 13 points, 13 rebounds and five assists. Evee scored a team-high 20 points. Statistically, it was night and day better from the SMU outing just days ago. But unfortunately for the Owls, the result didn’t change. It was a closer loss, but a loss all the same.

“We knew we had to play better. It didn’t really take anyone to tell us that,” Evee said. “I still don’t think we played our best ball today. We have to find a way to keep playing better.”

Up Next: at Tulsa (Saturday, Feb. 17)

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Rice Basketball outlasts Temple for first-ever AAC win

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It wasn’t easy, but Rice basketball is heading home from Temple with their first-ever AAC win, taking down the conference’s other Owls 69-66.

The visiting Owls made themselves feel right at home against Temple on Saturday afternoon. Rice basketball knocked down a trio of three-point shots in the opening minutes, jumping out ahead 11-5 on the road. From there, the combination of Max Fiedler and Mekhi Mason took over, stretching a close game to yet another double-digit advantage for Rice.

A 13-point halftime lead did not last long. Temple opened the second half on a 7-0 run and, as if that wasn’t daunting enough, Travis Evee picked up his fourth foul shortly after that run. Not only was Rice going to have to find a way to hold onto the lead, they were going to have to do so without their top scorer on the floor for much of the second half.

Evee went to the bench. Rice lost the lead. Temple slowly added to their advantage, going up by six points before Evee was reinserted into the game. Playing with no foul margin, Evee scored eight straight points, spurring a Rice rally that was desperately needed.

With the game back in reach, a stressful series of closing possessions soon followed. Missed free throws from both sides and errant passes culminated in two clutch free throws from Mason, who finished with a team-high 20 points, powering Rice to a lead in the final seconds. A three-ball from Temple at the buzzer would clank off the rim, giving Rice basketball its first-ever AAC win.

The win was Pera’s 350th career win.

“This has been a tough stretch, one of the toughest of my career of 33 years,” head coach Scott Pera said after the game. “They’ve just hung with it. They’ve practiced good. We’ve been playing better. We just gotta win. We found a way today. I’m just so proud of them.”

Final Box | Rice 69 – Temple 66

Key takeaway | A win is a win is a win

Despite a slow start in conference play, getting a lead hasn’t been too difficult for Rice basketball over the last several weeks. This has been a good first half team, building sizable advantages early in games but not having the ability to sustain that level of play over 40 minutes. Whether it’s endurance, focus or misfortune of one kind or another, leads have too frequently disappeared as quickly as they have come.

So when Rice took a 16-point lead in the waning minutes of the first half, confidences were mixed. After all, the Owls had done this before but they hadn’t finished yet. On Saturday on the road, Rice finally got it done.

The victory in itself will not awe anyone on the outside. Temple entered the game 8-10 (1-4 AAC). It won’t go down in any record books or be spoken about as a resume builder for a program looking to turn the corner and get going back in the right direction. However, it should serve as proof of concept for what this team is capable of when they can play well and execute offensively.

Getting out of an 0-4 AAC start can’t happen overnight. It’s one game at a time. This was one baby step, sorely needed after an arduous beginning.

Up Next: vs Florida Atlantic (Wednesday, Jan. 24)

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Rice Basketball: 2023 Post-Season State of the Program

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The 2022-2023 Rice basketball saw the Owls’ win total rise but was far from perfect. Where does the program stand as it enters the offseason?

A strong start in conference play was not enough to secure a first-round bye in the conference tournament, but Rice basketball still managed to win a postseason game in the conference tournament and in the CBI Tournament en route to 19 wins, a program-high under the leadership of head coach Scott Pera.

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The Owls finished 19-16 (8-12) this season, a modest improvement from a 16-17 (7-11) campaign the season prior. With the final game in the books, where does the program stand as it moves forward?

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