Owls stuck at two wins
After visiting Provo, Utah, and Austin in the past two weeks, the Owls, 2-4 on the year, return home to the renovated Tudor Fieldhouse this weekend before they break for finals. The Owls need just two victories to eclipse their win total from last year after picking up wins against North Florida University and Cal Polytechnic Institute at the Basketball Travelers Invitational hosted by Brigham Young University two weekends ago.
Rice opened against the University of Texas at San Antonio last night, but the score was unavailable at the time this article went to press. The Roadrunners came into the contest with a 3-2 record on the season but had yet to post a win against a NCAA Division I opponent. The Roadrunners came close against Iowa last week, but they lost by six points after leading with less than eight minutes to go.
In Saturday's matinee matchup, the Owls will take on Texas State University, a team they beat last season 88-71 in San Marcos. The Bobcats return their top three scorers from last year but have struggled of late, losing games to the University of Wyoming, University of Northern Colorado, and the University of San Francisco. Leading the way for TSU is senior guard Brent Benson, who averaging nearly 21 points per game and shooting am unfathomable 62 percent from the three point line. Benson led the nation in three-pointers made as a freshman and sophomore at Coastal Georgia Community College and finished with the second most all-time at the junior college level.
Rice heads into this week's series of games after going 2-1 in Provo, losing only to host BYU. The Cougars, who extended their home winning streak to a nation-best 50 games, proved just too much for the Owls to overcome.
After not rebounding the ball well in their home opener against Portland State University on Nov. 15, the Owls devoted even greater portion of practice time to crashing the boards.
This showed up in their wins against Cal Poly, which they outrebounded 39-25, and North Florida, 41-31.
In Rice's game against Texas last weekend the team rebounded the ball well, but they could not keep pace with the eighth-best team in the nation. The Owls played well in the first half and were down just seven at the break, but the jet-lagged Longhorns, just back from the Maui Invitational, took off in the second half and won the game 77-56.
Much like in their loss against BYU, the Owls struggled shooting the ball, hitting on just 25 percent of their shots in the second half. The team's leading scorer, junior guard Cory Pflieger, was held to just six points, going two of 10 from the field.
Freshman forward Lucas Kuipers had the best game of his young season and registered career highs in nearly every category. Kuipers' game-high 19 points was also the single-game high for Rice so far this year. After coming off the bench, Kuipers quickly jumped into the mix, hitting four three pointers and making seven of his 11 shot attempts.
Thus far, the Owls have been relying on big nights from different players to make up for poor shooting nights. In the team's close 61-53 loss to Lamar on Nov. 25, another freshman, guard Connor Frizzelle, scored a game high 18 points on a night when the team made 29 percent of their shots.
Rice's search for an offensive identity has led to no player averaging more than 10 points per game but seven players averaging more than five. At times, the Owls' struggles on offense are the result of not having a player capable of beating his man one-on-one and creating shots for himself. Last year's leading scorer, Patrick Britton, developed into the team's main scoring threat late in the season; hopefully this year that player can step up earlier, since the Owls' diverse scoring has been more inconsistent than balanced in the early going.
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