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Rice Basketball survives Northwestern State in OT

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Rice Basketball needed overtime to eek out a win over Northwestern State, but the Owls found a way to hang on.

Things were never comfortable at Tudor Fieldhouse on Saturday afternoon. Even though Rice basketball had never lost to Northwestern State in 11 previous meetings, the Demons made sure they did everything they could to jeopardize that streak.

Rice scored first, but never led by more than seven points in the first half, allowing Northwestern State to pull even on two separate occasions. In fact, Northwestern State went more than 59 minutes without seeing a lead, trailing by as many as 13 points midway through the second half when Denver Anglin drained one of a trip of threes.

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From there, though, the comeback was on. The Demons responded with a 13-4 run to get back in the game and took their very first lead of the contest with 48 seconds on the clock. Kellen Amos would knock down three free throws to go back in front by two, only for Northwestern State to take the lead again on another three, this time with 6.2 seconds left in regulation.

Amos leveled the score with another free throw, but missed what would have been the game clinching shot from the charity stripe and the game went to overtime. In OT, it was Alem Huseinovic who hit a three with 1:01 to play to give Rice some breathing room before Rice made one final defensive stand to hang on for the win and improve to 3-1 on the season.

Final Box | Rice 77, Northwestern State 75

What They’re Saying

We’re obviously on a journey trying to become a good team. We’re not there yet, but the mark of a good team is that when you are in close, hard-fought games, that you can find a way to win. Whenever you do that, it becomes a frame of reference. To have a game like that early in the year, where a lot of things went against us late in the game, missed free throws, turnovers, and some good one-and-one play by (Northwestern State), when things looked bleak we still found a way to fight our way back. It’s a credit to our guys that we have this frame of reference. – Rice basketball head coach Rob Lanier

Key takeaway | Winning Ugly Works For Now

Rice basketball doesn’t have a longer active winning streak against any other Division 1 opponent on the hardwood. Losing to Northwestern State on Saturday wouldn’t have been a fatal blow, but it would have marred a season that’s shown so much promise despite the obvious growing pains. Lanier hasn’t hid from those warts, but they’re still painful to grow past in real time.

Because Rice did win, they start 3-1 for the first time since 2021-2022. They snapped a three-game losing streak in overtime and found a way to win on a day when so much wasn’t going their way. Winning every game by 50 would be nice, but if that’s not going to happen, the end result is the most important factor to replicate. Especially right now as this team learns to win well, a win is a win.

Up Next: at Louisiana (Tues, Nov. 19)

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Smothering defense lifts Rice Basketball past Louisiana Monroe

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A historic defensive effort powered Rice Basketball past Louisiana Monroe, who barely reached 50 points in a losing effort.

Defense took center stage at Tudor Fieldhouse on Tuesday evening. Rice basketball and the visiting Louisiana Monroe Warhawks started the game a combined 5-for-27 by the second media timeout, an underwhelming 19 percent from the floor. Regression would find both teams eventually and the shots began to fall, but it wouldn’t be a banner night for either side when it came to scoring the basketball.

“We want it to be characteristic of our program that defense is at the forefront of what we do without compromising on how we want to play on offense,” head coach Rob Lanier said. “But sometimes when you’re establishing that, one thing winds up taking priority and the offense has to catch up with that because if you really get good at keep getting the ball back then what you do with it matters.”

Because of those low margins, the game was close throughout. A three from Alem Huseinovic in the final seconds of the first half gave Rice basketball a seven-point advantage, the largest lead for either side before the break. In fact, Huseinovic’s 11 points doubled up everyone else on the court. No other player had more than five points when the halftime buzzer sounded. It was just going to be that kind of game: tough and physical.

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Rice’s effort began to shine through in earnest once the second half began. Louisiana Monroe missed their first two shots. Rice missed their first. Then Jimmy Oladokun Jr. made a leaping play on the baseline to corral a loose ball and deflect it off the leg of a Louisiana Monroe defender. That allowed Rice to maintain possession, setting Huseinovic up for a crucial three and propelling the Owls to an 11-point advantage.

That it was Oladokun was fitting to the culture this team is trying to build. Laner said postgame that Oladokun was in the lineup because he’d earned a greater role in practice this week and with his contributions against Florida State following only seeing two minutes in the Owls’ opener against FIU.

Louisiana Monroe wasn’t going to go away that easily. On the strength of a 7-0 run, the Warhawks got back within three but couldn’t get any closer. The Owls mounted a defense stop and quickly created impactful transition points, converting not one, but two massive alley-oop dunks, the first by Andrew Akuchie and the next by Kellen Amos to put Rice in front by 12.

The high-flying plays were celebrated by the entire arena, including the Owls’ bench. No matter who was on the court — and Rice basketball played 14 players on Tuesday night — the energy was inescapable.

“As a group, you’re starting to see a group of guys that are really pulling for one another and just putting the team first,” Lanier said. “We’ve got an acronym, INAM. It simply means ‘it’s not about me’ and we want them to live that as teammates. We want them to believe in that. And that is how you establish a defensive culture and it’s how you establish a real winning program culture. It’s starting to take effect. We’re just at the beginning and we haven’t had enough adversity to know if it really is who we are just yet.

Final Box | Rice 66, FSU 50

What They’re Saying

Key takeaway | Defense

Through the early days of the 2024-2025 Rice basketball season, Lanier has used words like “scattered” and out of rhythm when referring to the Owls’ scoring efforts. He’s attributed much of that inefficiency to the learning curve of players learning his offense and how they fit together things that should, in theory, get better over time as the team begins to accrue more court time together.

Lanier ran through a list of talented shooters he remains confident in like Trey Patterson and Denver Anglin, former top 100 recruits who had career highs today after seeing lighter usage early this season. He touted Jacob Darr’s offensive game, too. But all of the offensive praise came with this important caveat: “He’s a really good offensive player. He doesn’t get to do what he wants to do until he does what I want him to do.”

While the Owls wait for the offense, the defense has emphatically arrived. Pitted against a more traditional opponent which doesn’t switch or play as exotic of a scheme as either of their first two opponents, Rice flat-out suffocated Louisiana Monroe. The 50 points scored by Louisiana Monroe was the lowest total Rice basketball has allowed against a D1 team since February 11, 2012 (SMU).

“Ever since Rob Lanier came and took over the head coaching job he’s been very intense on defense, he’s been very minded on defense as his priority,” Alem Huseinovic, who led the team with 15 points said. “All summer, preseason, into the season now, that’s really what we focus on. We want to change the narrative here at Rice and I think we did a really good job tonight.”

On three separate occasions, Louisiana Monroe missed six or more consecutive shots including eight straight misses following their opening bucket to start the game.

Up Next: vs Northwestern State (Sat, Nov. 16)



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Rice Basketball comes up short against Florida State

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Rice Basketball kept things close but couldn’t get enough shots to fall late, picking up their first loss of the season against Florida State.

Florida State came out swinging and immediately put Rice basketball on the defensive at the Toyota Center on Saturday night, shooting a blistering 76 percent from the field in the first 10 minutes and forcing the Owls to match their torrid pace.

A 7-0 run from the Noles was the Owls’ first test. Rather than rely on any one player, Rice saw contributions up and down the lineup to keep the game within reach. On this occasion, it was Jacob Dar and Trey Patterson who came through with the key layups to get back within four. That was the point when both sides seemed to settle down and the Rice defense was able to set its defense and play the style of game they wanted to play.

Florida State saw their shooting percentage drop from the high 70s to the 40s and their fouls tick upward. After hitting 10 of their first 13 field goals, the Noles missed their next eight shots. A simultaneous shooting slump from the Owls squashed any chance of a rally, but the defensive effort kept Rice afloat until Florida State snapped out of their stupor, a moment which unfortunately came before the Rice offense had recharged.

Rice was held to one field goal in the final eight minutes of the first half, allowing Florida State to go on a 9-3 run and extend their lead to 10 points at the break.

More: Rice Basketball 2024-2025 Season Preview

Alem Huseinovic and Trae Broadnax kicked the team into gear in the second half, knocking down a trio of three-pointers, almost instantaneously evaporating the Florida State lead which shrank to 33-32 in roughly two minutes of play.

Both teams traded baskets and fouls late into the second half, but that crucial spurt of three-point success proved to be the exception, not the rule. Rice would miss 11 of their next 12 three-pointers, slowly watching a close game fade away with each successive clank off the iron. 12 missed free throws didn’t help the cause, either. The box score shows a comfortable Florida State win, but Rice had a real chance to make this one interesting.

“From an overall team connectivity standpoint, we have something good there,” guard Trae Broadnax said postgame. “That’s where we’re close and we just have to lock in on the things that plagued us like the free throws, like the turnovers, like the execution on both ends of the floor so that we can put it together. It’s November. We’ve still got a long ways to go.”

Final Box | FSU 73, Rice 65

What They’re Saying

Key takeaway | Free Throw Woes

There’s been a lot of good to take from the Rob Lanier era of Rice basketball through two games and a 1-1 start. The defensive effort is improved and the effort has been impressive on both ends of the court. The most glaring deficiency that cost the Owls in both games so far? Free throws.

Rice missed 15 free throws against FIU and missed 12 free throws against Florida State. Shooting 100 percent from the charity stripe is unrealistic and even making every foul shot wouldn’t have saved the Owls on Saturday night, but this game takes on a different feel if they make them at a more realistic clip. That change might not be coming soon.

“Today was my 1,091st game coaching division one [basketball] and I’ve never worked with — and I worked with two hall of fame coaches — or been a great free throw coach. Billy Donovan was not a good free throw coach. Rick Barnes was not a good free throw coach and neither am I,” Lanier admitted.

Lanier’s final SMU squad made just 68.6 percent of their free throws last season. The 2024-2025 Owls are sitting at 60.8 percent through two games. Neither of those numbers is going to be better than the bottom quartile of the country.

Lanier acknowledged the challenge but kept a positive spin on things. “Witchcraft. Pixie dust. Burn some sage in the gym,” he joked. “We’ll try some different stuff.”

Rice basketball might never be an elite free throw shooting team. But getting the Owls back to the middle of the back would go a long way.

Up Next: vs Louisiana Monroe (Tues)



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Rice Basketball rides strong defensive start over FIU in season opener

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Rice Basketball head coach Rob Lanier is 1-0. The Owls’ stingy defense and clutch shooting powered them past FIU in their home opener.

Shortly after winning the opening tip, Caden Powell knocked down the first basket of the Rob Lanier era for Rice basketball. The 6-foot-10 transfer from Wyoming had five straight points to kickstart the Owls’ scoring which would come from a host of different players, still coalescing into the team they hope to be.

Reaching that point will require growth that can only be attained through court time against others who are not sporting blue and gray. No sooner had the Owls taken the lead did they see it slip away, victims of an 8-0 FIU run that offered the team their first true test which they passed quickly, rallying back with a 10-0 spurt of their own soon after to retake the lead. The game was on.

Tied at 21, the Owls leaned on a dominant defensive effort to create some separation. Rice outscored FIU 17-6 in the final seven minutes of the first half, holding their opponents to just 29 percent shooting in the first frame.

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While the defense held the line, the offense started to heat up. An 11-point halftime lead for the Owls grew to as many as 17 in the second stanza, providing plenty of breathing room when FIU hit threes on the ensuing three possessions. The margin stayed tight from that point onward.

Powell, who registered a double-double with a team-high 17 points and 11 rebounds, made his presence felt again down the stretch, scoring each of the Owls’ last three field goals before both teams gave way to foul shots.

“Just get one kill, gotta get three stops in a row. Gotta seal the deal, just take care of the ball,” he said of the team’s focus in those final minutes. “Once we get those stops just take care of the ball and we’ll be good.”

Powell finished off his double-double and gave way to free throw attempts for his teammates. Rice shot 38 free throws, the most attempts at the stripe for the program since Nov. 22, 2019, against Milwaukee. Had the team been more efficient from the line — they made just 23 of those shots (61 percent) — this one could have been a blowout.

“We really couldn’t find an offensive rhythm. We weren’t moving the ball. We weren’t doing what we practice, offensively. We look scattered and a little hot potato there. Just stagnant,” head coach Rob Lanier summarized afterward. “Which is a good sign that we still scored 77 points and we played terrible on offense, from an execution standpoint and we missed a lot of free throws. So the pace wasn’t bad, but the efficiency wasn’t what we aspired to.”

Final Box | Rice 77, FIU 70

What They’re Saying

Key takeaway | Real, genuine defense, for a half

Playing great defense was something Lanier banged the table for all offseason. He guaranteed his teams would play with an intensity on that side of the ball that would be noticed. Early on, those proclamations seemed like premonitions. Rice held FIU to 28 percent shooting in the first half, suffocating their offense.

FIU shot 36.5 percent for the game, but it was a second-half split which included 50 percent from three that proved the most vexing.

“It’s a process,” Lanier said. “They’re a well-coached team. They’re going to make some shots, whatever. But the resistance wasn’t as great, the feeling, determination on defense to continuously get stops. We allowed the scoreboard to dictate our intensity. That’s part of our growth.”

Lanier noted there were some first-game jitters, calling parts of the operation “choppy”, but when asked if there was one thing about this game he’d like to replicate moving forward, his answer came with a grin: “the outcome”.

Up Next: Florida State (Sat)



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2024-2025 Rice Basketball Season Preview

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Rice Basketball embarks on a new era under head coach Rob Lanier this season. What will the new-look Owls be able to offer in his debut season on South Main?

Emotions are always high when you hire a new coach. A new day dawns and all the prior struggles and frustrations are momentarily thrust back into the depths. But the games will eventually start again and the neverending cycle of hope and tragedy that plagues all sports will soon return. New Rice basketball head coach Rob Lanier is responsible for ensuring those woes are shortlived and the Owl faithful see a product on the court that makes them proud.

Lanier didn’t shy away from those obligations when he first addressed Rice fans the day he was hired. “We’re gonna win. It ain’t a hope. It ain’t a dream. It’s a reality. So you can get prepared for that,” he said at the podium that afternoon. In a short time, those words will be put to the test.

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