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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 falls to UTSA in overtime

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Rice basketball was unable to hold onto a second half lead, falling in overtime to UTSA in their AAC “home” opener.

Away from home for the first time as “hosts” in an American Conference game, Rice basketball was out of sorts from the start against UTSA. The visiting Roadrunners showed no signs of confusion when it came to finding their shot at Jerabeck Activity and Athletic Center, jumping out to a double-digit lead in the first 10 minutes of the opening half.

When the Owls needed a spark, Travis Evee took charge. He scored three straight layups to get Rice within four. Soon after his first three of the day got Rice within one score. Noah Shelby took the baton from there, knocking down a three-pointer to give Rice its first lead since the 16-minute mark to begin the game. Trailing by as many as 11 points, Rice had battled back and entered halftime with a three-point lead.

Rice was able to take that advantage and push it to double-digits early in the second half. For a moment, it looked as if the Owls had escaped disaster, but those hopes dissipated rapidly. UTSA immediately fired back and turned it into a back and forth game, which eventually found itself in overtime.

UTSA would go on to outscore Rice 12-5 in overtime, handing the Owls a crushing loss and pushing the Owls to the bottom of the AAC standings.

“We didn’t have the end of the game like we needed to handle it,” head coach Scott Pera said. “They made us pay. They got the shot. Those are hard lessons to learn.”

Final Box | UTSA 89 – Rice 82 (OT)

Key takeaway | Red Alert

UTSA entered this contest dead last in the American in KenPom, No. 290 in the country. How bad have the Roadrunners been this season? For comparison, they’re more than 60 spots behind the next closest AAC team in those rankings. Unfortunately, that next team is Rice. The Owls entered Saturday at No. 224 and they’re going to drop further after this.

If the result wasn’t scary enough, the company Rice has kept this season should raise concern. If Rice basketball can’t put away UTSA, why should they expect to be competitive in a conference that expects to send multiple teams to the NCAA Tournament?

The Owls need to circle the wagons and find some answers. The offense, which was meant to be the strength of this team, has yet to click this season. The defense has had spurts of success but isn’t nearly consistent enough to make up for the Owls’ shooting struggles. With conference play looming, Rice is running out of time to make those adjustments. Until proven otherwise, it appears Rice basketball has a long season ahead of them.

Up Next: at USF (Friday, Jan. 12)

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Rice Basketball: 2023-2024 New Year’s State of the Program

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Rice basketball has struggled through the first month of the season. Here’s where the Owls stand with American Conference play looming.

A year ago, Rice basketball was riding one of their best starts in program history and seven games above .500 as the New Year approached. The 2023-2024 Owls would trade for those circumstances in a heartbeat. It’s been much tougher sledding this season, for a variety of reasons, and the road isn’t easing up anytime soon.

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Head coach Scott Per has gradually improved the program from season to season. Can he turn this around and keep the Owls arrow pointing upward? Let’s dig in.

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Rice Basketball wins School House Mania game over UIW

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Rice basketball fought through a slow start, riding Travis Evee’s second half burst to a win over Incarnate Word in the Owls’ School House Mania game.

Things got off to a bit of a bumpy start for Rice basketball in their annual School House Mania game. Playing host to Incarnate Word, the Owls found themselves trailing their visitors in the early minutes. UIW built a five-point lead before Rice finally got its footing.

Near the midpoint of the first, Rice thundered back with a 17-4 run. A deficit turned into a 10-point advantage as all the Owls on the court got involved in the scoring. They moved the ball well and started to knock down open shots, albeit still without much success from three.

Those failures from long range would create an opening for Incarnate Word’s Josiah Hammons who made a pair of long balls to quickly neutralize the Rice advantage. The Owls would go into halftime with just a three-point lead which disappeared entirely on the first UIW possession after the break.

Travis Evee would break the gridlock. The veteran guard connected on a trio of three-pointers in the span of a few possessions, turning a one-score game into another double-digit advantage for Rice. Incarnate Word would chip away down the stretch, but Rice was able to keep their opponents at arm’s length and ride Evee’s hot hand — he scored a game-high 29 points — to a much-needed win.

Evee notched his 1500th career point in that winning effort, becoming just the 10th player in program history to reach that mark. It was the defense, though, that drew some of his most effusive praise.

“I thought the communication on defense was really good today. There weren’t many self-inflicted wounds on defense. We made them make a lot of tough shots,” Evee said. “We made them take one shot, they didn’t get many offensive rebounds today. Our guys are boxing out. We were flying around with energy.”

Final Box | Rice 80 – UIW 57

Key takeaway | Defense?

Rice hasn’t proven itself to be a team that can play 40 minutes of excellent defensive basketball yet, but Wednesday was an encouraging sign things might be slowly moving in the right direction. While the offense struggled in the early goings, the defense managed to keep this team in the game, something Pera called out almost immediately in his postgame comments.

“I might start chanting defense, defense!” Pera joked. “I think for one of the first times in a long time our defense energized our offense. Whereas in the past, so many times our offense is what got our defense going. I’m happy about that and I think our effort in the second half was outstanding”

Rice held Incarnate Word to 33.9 percent shooting for the game and 24 percent shooting in the second half. The Owls crushed their opponents on the boards after the break, winning that battle 27-12. There have been signs of defensive growth over the past few weeks, but this was one of the better performances we’ve seen from this group so far. Getting a full 40 minutes is the next step.

Up Next: at Northwestern State – Dec. 16 (Sat.)

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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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