Saturday sports update: Rice rebounds with strong win over ECU
The men's basketball team picked up its second conference win of the season Saturday afternoon at Tudor Fieldhouse, beating East Carolina University 76-70 in a game Rice led from start to finish.With the victory, the Owls improved to 7-14 on the year, 2-5 in Conference USA, and looked to have rebounded from Wednesday's emotional collapse versus Tulane University.
Strong post play by senior forward Aleks Perka and sophomore center Trey Stanton got the Owls off to a fast start. The two combined for 14 of the team's first 16 points.
Finishing with 21 points and 11 rebounds, both game highs, gave Perka the first double-double of his career in a game he dominated on both ends of the floor.
"Aleks and Trey have been stepping up big time for us," senior guard Rodney Foster said. "I noticed it in practice first, but they're bringing a different type of aggressiveness than they had earlier in the year and it's showing in games. Aleks is playing with the most confidence that I've seen since he's been here."
Forward Chad Wynn finished with 21 points for the Pirates. He was 9-10 from the field but made only three of seven attempts from the free-throw line.
For the second straight game, the Owls found themselves holding onto a 19-point lead midway through the first half before the Pirates embarked on a 14-0 run that narrowed the lead to five.
Rice went into halftime leading 44-37.
Unlike Wednesday's game versus Tulane, which saw Rice start the second half cold, the Owls came out of halftime hot and expanded the lead to 14 after two minutes of play.
Senior guard Rodney Foster hit two three-pointers in Rice's opening 10-3 run. He would score all 12 of his points in the second half in addition to dishing out five assists. Against Tulane, Foster endured a painful foot injury and was able to play today with only slight pain after undertaking six hours of rehab on Thursday and Friday.
Head coach Ben Braun cited the team's aggressiveness as the biggest difference maker between the games against Tulane and ECU.
"If nothing else, I want us attacking off the glass, running and pushing every possession," Braun said.
ECU guard Sam Hinnant narrowed the lead to 65-61 at the six-minute mark off a three-pointer. Hinnant finished with 17 points and made 4-10 shots from behind the arc.
The Pirates shot 39 percent for the game and hit on 11 of 31 shots from behind the arc.
The Owls fared much better from the field than the Pirates, making 46 percent of their shots and nearly 50 percent of their three-pointers.
Rice guards' distribution of the basketball was also impressive as the Owls compiled 18 assists, compared to 12 for the Pirates.
Pirate guard Brock Young was the nation's assist leader heading into the game, but he finished with just four on the night, well below his season average of 8.2.
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