Owls soar over Memphis Tigers
Sitting within arms reach of the players warming up at halftime on Saturday night in Tudor Fieldhouse, Athletic Director Rick Greenspan's message to the men's basketball team was a short one. "Finish it!" Greenspan yelled emphatically to each player that walked past on the layup line, with just 20 minutes separating the Owls from their first ever win against the University of Memphis (21-7, 9-4 C-USA).
And although simple in dictation, finishing off games against conference foes has been anything but easy for Rice so far this season. The Owls have led or been tied in the second half of eight of their 14 losses, with specific games against the University of Southern Mississippi (21-6, 9-4 C-USA) and the University of Alabama-Birmingham (19-7, 9-4 C-USA) as the most recent examples of their second half struggles against the conference's elite.
Rice found themselves in a similar spot on Saturday night, leading the conference leading Tigers 35-26 at the half after forcing nine turnovers and outrebounding the Tigers by a 24-15 margin. As has become the case more often than not this season, the Owls were led in the half by sophomore guard Tamir Jackson and sophomore forward Arsalan Kazemi, who scored 10 and eight points, respectively, to put Rice out in front.
But over the final 20 minutes of the game, Rice's player of the night would prove to be a senior who did not score and recorded just one rebound in three minutes of run in the first half. It was the energy and outstanding defensive play of senior forward Suleiman Braimoh that answered the athletic director's call. Braimoh, who has faced and lost to the Tigers more than any player on the roster, kept Memphis at bay time and time again when it appeared they were an the verge of making a run at the Owls.
The first such opportunity came with just under 15 minutes left, when a Rice turnover gave Memphis the ball back with the opportunity to trim their deficit to just five points. Braimoh jumped out on the shooter to block a three-point attempt and outran multiple Tigers down the floor for an easy layup to push the lead back up to 10. Holding on to a 43-32 lead with under 11 minutes left, it was again Braimoh coming up big on the defensive end to lead to a bucket on the other end. His block of Tigers' forward Tarik Black at the rim was followed by a Jackson (team-high 20 points) three-pointer at the other end to give the Owls the 14-point lead and force a timeout from Memphis Coach Josh Pastner.
But no matter what Pastner drew up in the huddle, his team had no chance at a comeback with the rate at which they turned the ball over during the course of the game. Boasting the top freshman class coming into the season of any team in the nation, the Tigers showed their inexperience Saturday with 19 turnovers, including four apiece from freshman standouts Joe Jackson and Will Barton. These mistakes disrupted the offensive continuity and prevented Memphis from making a substantial run when it appeared they may have had the Owls on the ropes.
The Tigers would again trim the Rice lead to 10 with six minutes left, but Braimoh's putback layup was followed by a Kazemi (11 points, 12 rebounds) steal, who threw the ball ahead to Braimoh for an easy dunk. The lead was extended to 59-43 by a Jackson jumper the next time down, and the celebration was on for the fans at Tudor Fieldhouse. The Owls would extend the lead to as many as 20 points with under two minutes left and won by a final score of 67-52.
"I know what my strengths are," Braimoh said after the win, the team's most impressive performance of the season. "I know that one thing I can bring to every game is my effort and energy."
After the quiet first half, Braimoh finished with four steals and three blocks in the second half to go along with eight points on the game. On the offensive side, it was the play from Jackson that paced the Owls and kept them ahead the entire game.
"From the jump ball we knew we could beat them. We just had to stick together and play our ball, and we did that tonight," noted Jackson of the confidence his team displayed in knocking off the top team in the C-USA.
Following the win against Memphis, the Owls traveled to Dallas to take on Southern Methodist University, one of the six teams within a game of the conference lead in the C-USA. The first 39:15 of the game looked a lot like the first time these two teams met, with SMU guard Robert Nyakundi and forward Papa Dia dominating on the offensive end to give the Mustangs the advantage. Trailing 52-44 with 45 seconds left, the Owls drew up a play for junior forward Lucas Kuipers, who drained a three-pointer to pull Rice within five. After a pair of free throws by the Ponies, it was again Kuipers hitting from deep to make it a four point game. Nyakundi gave SMU a 57-52 lead with 11 seconds left, but this time it was senior guard Cory Pflieger whose three-pointer cut the Rice deficit to two with 0:07 remaining. Out of a timeout, Rice's pressure defense forced the SMU inbounds pass to go out of bounds for a turnover. On the ensuing play, Head Coach Ben Braun diagrammed a play for Kazemi, who was fouled at the rim and was sent to the line with two seconds left trailing by a pair. Cool and collected, Kazemi drained both to send the game to overtime and cap off a miraculous comeback. Led by Kuipers, Rice closed the game on a 13-2 run over the final two minutes, including a 5-0 run in the last 11 seconds, to stun the Mustangs and force extra time.
The overtime period began with free throws by Jackson, who was again dominant on the offensive end, leading the team with 22 points for his third straight 20+ point performance. But the response for SMU was freshman Jeremiah Samarrippas, whose mistake on the inbounds at the end of regulation gave Rice the opportunity to force overtime. Samarrippas's three gave SMU the 60-59 lead, before Nyakundi hit from deep to push the lead to four points for SMU.
Samarrippas, who scored seven points in the overtime, came back again with a jumper to give SMU a six-point lead with 1:29 left, as missed jumpshots and turnovers doomed Rice on the offensive end. A steal at the other end forced Rice to foul Dia, who hit a pair of free throws to put the Mustangs up eight and put the shocking Owls' comeback to waste. The final score was 76-66, dropping Rice to 12-15 on the season and 4-9 in C-USA.
The Owls will play host to East Carolina University (14-13, 6-7 C-USA) tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Tudor Fieldhouse before wrapping up their home season Wednesday when they host the University of Tulsa.
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