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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 comes up short at Charlotte

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Rice basketball stayed within striking distance but was never able to land a finishing blow, dropping a hard-fought game to Charlotte.

It wouldn’t have been readily apparent to any onlookers Wednesday night that the on-court battle they were witnessing was between teams on opposite ends of the American Conference standings. Rice basketball took Charlotte to the wire, coming within a timely basket or two of upsetting one of the AAC’s best.

Rice was able to keep things close thanks to an inspired performance by their defense. Charlotte shot just 36 percent from the field and 6-of-27 (22 percent) from three, essentially relying on forward Igor Milicic (26 points, 10 rebounds) to carry the rest of the team.

More: Roost Podcast — Spring Roundup

Charlotte led by seven at halftime and increased their edge to as many as 12 points. But each and every time the game got to the brink, Rice battled back. Midway through the second half, Travis Evee and Max Fiedler spurred an 11-2 run that brought the game within three points. Then the battle was on.

Both sides traded baskets as the clock wound down. Anthony Selden delivered a slashing layup to get the score within two with 26 seconds to play. Charlotte would hit their free throws and hold on, but not without some labored breathing down the stretch.

Final Box | Charlotte 69 – Rice 65

Key takeaway | Workable rotations

It’s taken most of the season to get to this point, but Rice basketball seems to have found itself the right balance of starters’ minutes, bench usage and rotations between the two units. Andrew Akuchie has been effective in his minutes, but so too has Anthony Selden off the bench and Keanu Dawes, albeit not as much against Charlotte.

This roster has talent, more so than it did at this point last season. Trusting that talent to come through in crucial situations should be the next step of a progressing program. It hasn’t resulted in victories as often as the Owls’ faithful would have hoped, but the pieces are there.

If Rice can add an effective three-point shot to a roster that is effective up close — Rice led Charlotte 40-26 in points in the paint — they could make some noise over the last few weeks of the season. The players are there.

Up Next: at North Texas (Wednesday, Mar. 9)

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Rice Basketball can’t keep pace with red-hot Wichita State shooting

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Rice basketball traded blows early, but ran out of steam in the second half, falling on the road to Wichita State by a final score of 87-65.

Points were volleyed back and forth as Rice Basketball traded buckets with Wichita State in the early goings of their matchup on Saturday night. The first two field goals made, from each side, came from three, a harbinger of the fast-paced, high-scoring game which was about to unfold.

There were 10 ties and five lead changes through the first half. Travis Evee was productive, registering 11 points before the break. Max Fiedler tallied his 1,112th career rebound — the most in program history — as both sides shot better than 50 percent from the field and scored at will.

More: Roost Podcast — Spring Roundup

The second half was a different story. Wichita State opened the period on a 17-6 run, quickly turning a back-and-forth affair into a rout. “It went from three to 12 before we could blink,” head coach Scott Pera said of that pivotal second half run. “We needed someone to hit one.” That crucial basket didn’t come until the deficit had grown too large.

Rice would never get back within single digits from that point onward. Keanu Dawes, who had a team-high 12 points in the first half was held scoreless in the second half. As a team the Owls shot just 35 percent from the floor, unable to keep up with the Shockers’ torrid pace.

Final Box | Wichita State 87 – Rice 65

Key takeaway | Where’d the three go?

Rice basketball has built its offensive game plan around the three-point shot ever since Pera arrived on campus. They’ve generally had success doing things that way, at least when it has come to generating points on the offensive side. Against Wichita State, Rice made just six threes.

Travis Evee has been the go-to guy from deep for a while now. He was 3-of-8. But outside of his attempts, no other Rice players were a threat from long range. In fact, nobody else attempted more than three triples in the game.

A Rice offense without an effective threat from three is perplexing and perhaps it’s not surprising the team couldn’t keep pace with a productive offensive team on a night where the long ball was that fleeting.

The Owls don’t have time to lick their wounds and dwell on the failure, though. They have two games left to bust out of a tie with Wichita State in the conference standings and clinch a bye in the conference tournament.

“We’re going to battle and we’re going to prepare to win them both. It takes a team to stay together, through adversity, and not fracture,” Pera vowed after the game. “We’re going to keep working.”

Up Next: at Charlotte (Wednesday, Mar. 6)

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Shooting fizzles as Rice Basketball falls to Temple

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Rice basketball never found its groove from the floor, falling behind early against Temple and never rallying back.

It took Rice basketball a while to get going in an all-Owl affair at Tudor Fieldhouse on Wednesday night. The visiting Temple Owls controlled the pace of the game in the early going, starting the score with a quick layup and holding Rice without a lead throughout the first half.

Even though Rice managed to hold Temple 28 points before the break, their own shooting woes rendered that workable defensive effort moot. Rice shot 23 percent from the floor before the break, going into halftime with a 28-19 deficit.

More: Roost Podcast — Spring Roundup

Things didn’t get better after the break. Temple opened the half on a 12-2 run, ballooning their lead to as many as 26 points as Rice continued to struggle from the floor. Travis Evee was 1-for-11. Mekhi Mason was 2-for-11. Outside of Max Fiedler, who finished with a team-high 12 points, no Owls saw any sort of success shooting the ball.

Temple had no such problems. They finished the night shooting 48 percent from the field, earning some payback from a loss to Rice in Philadelphia earlier this season.

Final Box | Temple 65 – Rice 43

Key takeaway | The race is on

By virtue of the loss on Wednesday, Rice basketball finds itself neck-neck with a grouping of six teams vying to avoid the final four spots in the conference standings and thus secure a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Among those in contention are the Wichita State Shockers, who the Owls face this coming weekend.

After Wichita State, Rice takes on Charlotte and North Texas to close out regular season play. Both of those squads currently reside in the top half of the standings. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room remaining. If Rice wants to avoid that first day of the conference tournament, another win (or two) would go a long way.

Up Next: at Wichita State (Saturday, Mar. 2)

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Rice basketball drops ECU for first AAC home win

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Winners of several big road games, Rice basketball finally made history at home on Saturday, beating ECU for the program’s first AAC home win.

With the month of March looming, Rice basketball seems to have found another gear. Days removed from a statement win in Birmingham over a red-hot UAB squad, the Owls notched a program first — their debut home win in the American Athletic Conference — taking down East Carolina at Tudor Fieldhouse by a final score of 70-52.

The game ended in a blowout, but it took a struggle to get there. Rice never led by more than four points in the first half and didn’t hold a double-digit lead until less than 10 minutes to go in the contest. Those narrow margins were due in large part to an even shooting performance from both sides.

Both ECU and Rice made 11-of-27 shots from the field in the first half. Each side had one double-digit scorer, RJ Felton from ECU and Travis Evee for Rice. Evee’s 11 first half points would prove to be an omen of even bigger things to come. He finished with a game-high 34 points, leading all scorers and turning the close game into a blowout in the later portions of regulation.

Evee delivered 16 points in the final seven minutes of the game, turning an 11-point edge into a 20-point beatdown. ECU hit one final three-pointer before the final buzzer, but the message was clear. Saturday was Rice’s day. And for the first time, an AAC win on their home court.

Final Box | Rice 70 – ECU 52

Key takeaway | Exceptional Evee

Head coach Scott Pera has reiterated on multiple occasions this team goes as its leaders go, chief among them, Travis Evee. After battling through an up-and-down season, Evee exploded on Saturday to the tune of seven made three-point shots and 34 total points. The seven threes is one three shy of the program record, currently held by Evee himself, and two others.

The eruption was no surprise to Evee. “As a shooter, I’ve got to have confidence. Whether I’ve missed two, made two in a row. I stay even-keeled,” he said. “I just trust the work I put in. Nothing really changes.”

While the process might not have changed, the results certainly did for Evee in this game. Winners of two straight, with Evee a central figure in both wins, Rice has some momentum heading into the final games of the regular season. If Evee can play like this, Rice might be dangerous after all.

“I think we’re a good team. We’ve been a good team,” Evee said after the win. “We just haven’t been able to close out these games. Haven’t been able to complete runs. I just feel like we’re putting it together right now. I feel like we’re getting hot.”

Up Next: vs Temple (Wednesday, Feb. 28)

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