Wednesday's Sports Update: Three-point barrage helps men to win

By Brody Rollins     2/5/09 6:00pm

The men's basketball team made history Wednesday night at Tudor Fieldhouse in their 88-72 win over the University of Southern Mississippi. With five minutes left to play in the contest, junior guard Cory Pflieger made the 15th three-pointer of the game, breaking the previous Owl record of 14 set against the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in 1999 and matched against Paul Quinn College in 2006. Rice finished with 16 three-pointers in the game off only 24 attempts.

With the win, the Owls improve to 8-15 on the year, 3-6 in Conference USA.

For the third straight home game the Owls jumped out to a big lead in the first half, this time stretching it to as much as 17 moments before the break, where they led 41-24.

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Senior guard Rodney Foster set the tone for Rice early, scoring 13 of his 20 points in the first half, including three shots from behind the arc.

The guard also dished out eight assists to just one turnover and played 33 minutes in the game while battling flu-like symptoms that landed him on an IV during halftime, causing him to miss the first few minutes of the second half.

As a team, the Owls had a season high 25 assists, compared to just eight for Southern Miss.

During one stretch in the first half, the Owls had five straight offensive conversions that were three-pointers, which ended when hit a jumpshot with his foot on the line.

Southern Miss, and guard R.L. Horton in particular, picked up their play in the second half by taking advantage of an ankle injury to senior forward Aleks Perka that sidelined him after halftime. Horton scored 15 of his team-leading 23 points in the half.

With 8:40 left and Southern Miss within nine, Foster connected with sophomore center Trey Stanton for an alley-oop jam, which was followed by a three-pointer from Pfleiger moments later.

Pfleiger snapped an 11-game double-digit scoring drought by making five of six attempts from behind the arc and had 18 points in the game.

"I felt like I've been coming out of it the last couple of games," Pfleiger said. "I was getting good shots and I knew it was just a matter of time. I thought it was mechanical at first, so I looked at some tape and realized it was just some minor things."

After the basket by Pfleiger, the Golden Eagles could not get the lead back to single digits for the remainder of the game.

Freshman guard Connor Frizzelle played a career-high 38 minutes in the game had a career- and game-high 24 points, while accounting for six of the Owl's three-pointers.

One area of worry for the Owls was the 48 second-half points scored by the Golden Eagles.

"We're a good team right now if we can tighten up defensively," said head coach Ben Braun.

After a promising start to the season that included wins over Houston, Ole Miss, and twice beating Tulane, the Golden Eagles are currently riding a four-game losing streak.

The Owls play next on the road Saturday against East Carolina University before returning home to face UTEP at Tudor Fieldhouse on the following Wednesday.

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