Rice basketball opened the Ball Dawgs Classic with a loss to Indiana State, losing the turnover battle and allowing too many long range shots.

Nothing seemed amiss in the early goings of the opening game for Rice basketball at the Ball Dawgs Classic in Las Vegas, NV. Rice and Indiana State traded early shots and were neck and neck through the first half of the opening frame. With the Owls leading 19-18 and the clock ticking under 12, it felt like a competitive game was about to unfold. That would not be the case.

Rice would go on to make just two shots in the next seven minutes of court time. During that period, Indiana State rained down six threes. The Owls simply could not keep up and their woes were further magnified by a season-high 18 turnovers.

That run took a close game and teetered it toward blowout territory. By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, Rice trailed by 21. Travis Evee did his part, contributing a season-high 25 points, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the early hole. Rice cut the deficit to 13 in the final minute, but they never had a real chance to win this basketball game once they fell behind in the manner with which they did.

“We knew they were a really good team coming in. They are a good team,” head coach Scott Pera said. “They made 16 threes and you’re never going to lose when you do that.”

Final Box | Indiana State 103 – Rice 88

Final from Vegas: INST 103 – @RiceMBB 88 pic.twitter.com/QI73DteFvc

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) November 22, 2023

Key takeaway | Don’t Hand Away Your Margin

Rice basketball had committed 18 turnovers in their last two games combined and 23 total on the season. To turn the ball over 18 times was devastating for the Owls’ offensive flow and marked one of the sloppiest performances taking care of the basketball for this team in quite some time. They only had three games with more turnovers in all of last season.

Pera pointed directly toward that glaring deficiency when explaining the loss. “I think it was our inability to take care of the ball,” he said. “We gave them turnovers. We gave them some open looks. There was a lot of miscommunication on defense that gave them wide-open looks. And they didn’t miss them.”

Rice made 10 threes against Indiana State and shot the ball decently well. They scored 88 points. This was a game that might have been competitive if the Owls had done enough to keep the game within reach. This team can score, but that skill won’t pay dividends if the defense and ball handling aren’t strong enough to keep games within reach.

There’s only so much margin for error that can be accounted for in a basketball game. Rice handed away all that margin and then some. The best teams struggle to win when turning the ball over at the rate the Owls’ did on Tuesday. Rice has some work to do before they’re in that company.

Up Next: Ball Dawg’s Classic – Henderson, NV (New Mexico – Nov. 22)

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Rice basketball rallied from an 18-point deficit on Friday night against Harvard, but could not finish the job, falling to the Crimson at home.

Days removed from a comprehensive drubbing of St. Thomas, Rice basketball was handed a much tougher challenge in their second game of the season. Harvard came out in a furry, delivering Rice their loudest wakeup call yet in their young season. From the opening score — a three ball from Chandler Pigge – throughout a barrage of Harvard baskets, Rice seemingly had no answer.

Harvard couldn’t miss early in this contest. The Crimson shot 51.6 percent in the first half, starting the game 6-for-9 from three. That onslaught would have been tough to keep pace with if the Owls were shooting well, but it wasn’t that kind of night for the home team. Rice opened the game 1-for-11 from three and struggled mightily from the floor.

“We got punched in the mouth out of the gate. I don’t know if it’s guys’ effort so much as if they’re not having success how they handle it internally,” Pera said. “I didn’t think our effort was bad. I thought our execution was bad, especially when we go the lead.”

The segue to that lead came with Rice trailing by a game-high 18 points in the first half. Pera called a timeout. The players settled down and responded with an 11-0 run. Reaching halftime trailing by only 10 points felt like a victory in itself.

At the halfway mark in the second half the game didn’t seem any closer. Rice trailed by 12 at the under-12-minute media timeout. Then, out of the timeout, Rice got to work. The 12-point deficit was vaporized. Over the course of the next three minutes, Rice thundered back to take the lead. It would not last.

Harvard found the plays in clutch moments whereas Rice was held without a field goal for more than four minutes before an inconsequential layup from Max Fiedler fell, accompanied by the muted applause of a full Tudor Fieldhouse. Rice falls to 1-1 with the loss.

“In every category that matters, they outplayed us,” Pera said.

Final Box | Harvard 89 – Rice 76

FINAL | Harvard 89, @RiceMBB 76

Owls erase an 18-point deficit, but can't hang on. Rice falls to 1-1 on the season. pic.twitter.com/I8dtGfE0Cr

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) November 11, 2023

What They’re Saying

“If you can do it in practice, you gotta be able to do it in a game. It’s gotta transfer. I gotta figure out why that didn’t happen so that the next time we play, whether it’s Texas or Saint Thomas, we do what we’re supposed to do and what we work on. That is the frustration for me.” – Head coach Scott Pera.

Key takeaway | Defensive frustrations

Fair or not, the defense will be the first culprit assigned blame when Rice loses. To this point of Pera’s tenure, it’s been his largest vexation and the most frequent offseason talking point. And to his credit, Pera never promised — nor should onlookers have expected — a top-tier defensive unit. The aim was always to be competent enough and the offense would do the rest.

The bar was rather low. Rice lost their opening contest last season at Pepperdine 106-67. Keeping Harvard to a slightly more stomachable 89 points is technically an improvement, but the progress rings hollow when the result isn’t a win.

“In practice, we do the right things. It’s just effort, paying attention in games and locking in instead of having these little mental lapses,” guard Anthony Selden said. “Mental lapses at this level, teams are going to take advantage of it. I think we can’t afford to have little mental lapses every possession.”

The defense was better in stretches after half time. Rice doesn’t get back into this game without five key second half turnovers and two blocks to help spur their comeback bid. Ultimately, though, it was an inability to maintain that level of defensive intensity for more than a few possessions that sank the Owls on Friday night.

Three times in his postgame comments Pera used the word disappointing, frustrations evident from the loss. For coaches and players, the disconnect from practice to the game was agonizing. And they don’t have very long to figure it out. Rice plays Texas in four days’ time.

Pera’s message was crystal clear. “Forget about beating Texas or beating Harvard. Just play like we’re capable of playing. You have an opportunity then, because we have good enough players, that you’ll give yourselves a chance to win the games,” he said. But if you play like this for 30 minutes tonight, you’re not winning.”

Up Next: at Texas (Wed. Nov 15)

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Rice basketball took care of business in their season opener, cruising past St. Thomas to improve to 1-0 in their inaugural campaign as AAC members.

As it has for the past several years, the 2023-2024 Rice Basketball season began with Max Fiedler at midcourt going up for the ball before distributing it to his teammates. Fiedler won the tip, dished it to Anthony Seldon who hit a jumper to give Rice an early lead. The problem, however, was that it did not last long.

Initially ahead 4-0, Rice allowed seven unanswered points from St. Thomas to fall behind before the first media timeout. Whether it was rust or nerves, it didn’t last long.

“It was good to get their attention a little bit, right? This is an older group. Max [Fiedler] and Travis [Evee] aren’t going to panic,” Pera said of that brief deficit. “Adversity is going to be a good thing for us.”

From then on, the rout was on. Rice took care of the basketball, committing zero turnovers in the first half and just five total turnovers in the game. Combine that with a 52.8 percent shooting performance from the floor and 14 made threes made for easy work of their intra-city foe.

“Really fun to get out there and play one that counts,” head coach Scott Pera said.

Max Fiedler finished with a double-double, notching 16 points and 11 boards. That’s come to be expected at this point. Seeing a strong debut from the likes of Sam Alajiki (who went a perfect 5-for-5 from three) and Noah Shelby (14 points) was a nice bonus.

Final Box | Rice 101 – St. Thomas 57

FINAL | @RiceMBB 101 – St. Thomas 57 pic.twitter.com/cbwSTwJN1M

— The Roost (@AtTheRoost) November 8, 2023

What They’re Saying

“I come into every game the same way. I’m trying to guard first and rebound and then whatever comes on the offensive end comes. When the ball got to me early, I made a few shots. It kept flowing and I felt good about it, so I just kept shooting the ball.” – Sam Alajiki

Key takeaway | Depth will be key

Absent a near-historic defensive performance like the Rice women’s basketball team was able to display on Monday night, there was never going to be too much to draw on from this game against St. Thomas. The bigger, more physical and more talented Owls handled their visitors with relative ease, as would have been expected in a matchup like this. More games are coming to test the defense.

No, the most compelling storyline from Tuesday night’s victory was the depth Rice was able to put onto the court and when they used it. Emptying the benches late in the second half of a runaway game doesn’t take much guts. Pera didn’t wait for the curtain call, though, he rotated through 10 players in the first half alone, giving non-trivial minutes to bench assets he intends to rely on more heavily this season.

“We had stretched of playing really good and I think what you saw, you saw the depth tonight. I thought Alem and Sam really sparked us in the first half and blew the game open,” Pera said.

Everyone that was healthy played. 13 different players scored. Seven non-starters played at least seven minutes. It was everything you could have hoped to see from a bench in a season opener. Rice is going to need these guys as the season progresses. They showed out well.

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