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Rice Basketball falls to UCI in finale, goes winless in Vegas

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Rice basketball hung around through halftime, but could not last a full 40 minutes, falling to UC Irvine in their Ball Dawgs Classic finale.

For the first time this week, Rice basketball opened a game by hitting their shots. After being ice cold from the field for the first two games of the Ball Dawgs Classic, Rice came out shooting 52 percent from the field in the first half with five assists and 31 points. They outshot their opponents by 10 percentage points and went into the halftime locker room tied. That, in itself, felt like a significant step.

The challenge in the second half would be to turn 20 sold minutes of basketball into a full game. Things started off well enough, with Rice opening up a three-point lead before playing UCI within three points for the next 10 minutes of action.

Travis Evee and Anthony Selden got to the line and made their free throws. They protected the basketball as a team, turning it over just twice in the second frame. What they couldn’t do was go shot for shot with a UC Irvine team that caught fire late.

At one point Rice missed seven in a row, allowing UCI to open a small lead. Then the Owls’ opponents knocked down eight of their final twelve shots. Rice finished 5-of-14 and that was that.

Final Box | UCI 83 – Rice 68

Key takeaway |  Be better on the boards

On an afternoon in which the Owls shot the ball well, protected the ball well and played servicable defense for long stretches, their inability to crash the boards cost them dearly. UCI led 20-14 in rebounds in the first half and finished the game with a 41-27 advantage over Rice. Nine of those were offensive rebounds.

It all comes down to giving opponents extra opportunities. Whether that’s turnovers, rebounds or something else, Rice isn’t playing cohesive enough as a team right now to overcome that margin. Small errors add up and they help turn a close game into another double-digit loss.

Up Next: vs UT Martin – Nov. 30 (Thr.)

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Rice Basketball downed by New Mexico, falls to 1-4

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Rice basketball fell to 0-2 at the Ball Dawgs Classic, falling too far behind in the first half to New Mexico on another tough night from three.

It wasn’t quite a repeat performance of the night before, but it was another discouraging result for Rice Basketball which fell to 1-4 on the season following a Wednesday night loss to New Mexico at the Ball Dawgs Classic in Las Vegas, NV. A changeup in the starting lineup, swapping in Noah Shelby in place of Anthony Selden didn’t seem to produce any material results.

Rice scored the first points, courtesy of a layup from Max Fiedler, but then watched their opponent go on a 16-3 run. New Mexico had their first double-digit lead before the second media timeout. Travie Evee kept the Owls afloat, leading all scorers with 11 first-half points.

After connecting on just 3-of-12 triples in the first half, Rice found some life early on in the second frame when their long balls began to fall. Rice made their first three three-pointers after intermission, cutting a deficit that had ballooned to 15 down to eight. The defense stepped up at that point too, contributing to nine consecutive missed shots for New Mexico.

As has been the case over the past four games, though, the bright spots were limited to brief moments and not stretched over the course of a 40-minute game. A 13-3 run midway through the second half put this game out of reach for good. Rice would go on to lose by a final score of 90-56.

Final Box | New Mexico 90 – Rice 56

Key takeaway | Can’t buy a bucket

Rice basketball likes to play fast and shoot the ball. When the shots go in, that’s all well and good. When they don’t, things can get out of hand quickly. And while the Owls possess the firepower to hurtle back and overcome deficits other teams might not, it’s certainly not a tactic they’d like to rely upon.

A season ago, Rice shot 44.9 percent from the floor and 36.4 percent from three. Those are averages, mind you, not highs and lows. Excluding their opener against Saint Thomas, Rice has yet to eclipse that shooting percentage from the field, managing just 34.0 percent from the floor against New Mexico. A dismal 25 percent shooting performance from three only made the troubles worse.

They’ve got one more game in Vegas to fight through. Then it’s back home against a couple of more manageable opponents and a much-needed, albeit brief reprieve from this rigorous non-conference schedule.

Up Next: Ball Dawg’s Classic – Henderson, NV (UC Irvine – Nov. 24)

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Rice Basketball blown away by Indiana State

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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

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 shooting goes cold in loss to Texas

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Rice basketball hung around early, but couldn’t keep pace with Texas, falling in Austin by the final score 80-64. The Owls are 1-2 overall.

A year removed from taking Texas to overtime but coming up short, Rice basketball gave their orange-clad opponents another rigorous challenge in Austin once more. Despite struggling to find their shooting stroke early on, Rice hung around.

It was the Rice defense that enabled them to prolong the fight, forcing eight Texas turnovers in the first half with three steals and two blocks. Anthony Selden was in the middle of many of those key defensive plays. Along the way, the Owls fell behind by as many as 12 points in the first half, but climbed back to within four before another cold spell left them behind by nine at the break.

Texas’ movement was the difference. The Longhorns did a better job consistently creating room for their shooters. That difference in shot quality when combined with a tough night from three for Rice put the visiting Owls in catch-up more all night long until time ran out.

Rice was able to briefly cut the deficit to nine points at the start of the second half, but the Longhorns were able to keep the Owls at arm’s length for more or less the remainder of the contest. Any dreams of a thrilling upset this time around would not come to pass.

Final Box | Texas 80 – Rice 64

Key takeaway | The shots will fall

Scott Pera has designed this team to score points. Facilitating open looks and setting up his players to be in the best possible situations for them to succeed is his bread and butter. But — as he’d be the first to tell anyone who asked — it’s the players who make the plays.

For whatever reason, those players haven’t been making the shots. Honestly, it’s basketball. Shooting slumps happen. Teams have off nights where the shot doesn’t fall. That happens more frequently against better defenses, including the one the Owls faced on Wednesday night, but it still happens.

The Texas defense was gritty. Rice didn’t get many clean looks and when they did, they did not convert at a high enough rate. On the other side, when Texas was given open looks, they made Rice pay. It will be the Owls’ night soon enough. 18 percent from three is the exception, not the rule.

Up Next: Ball Dawg’s Classic – Henderson, NV

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Early deficit dooms Rice Basketball in home loss to Harvard

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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

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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