Men's basketball wins opener

By Luke Samora     11/12/13 6:00pm

The Rice University men's basketball team kicked off its season Nov. 9 in Tudor Fieldhouse with a 69-60 win against the University of St. Thomas. The team was looking to start the season strong after a difficult season last year that ended 5-26 and was marked by six players' abrupt transfers from Rice.

The Owls defended well in the first half, with the St. Thomas Celts scoring 27 points and Rice scoring 36 points. Head Coach Ben Braun said he wanted the Owls to make St. Thomas take tougher shots in the second half, hoping to lower the number of transition baskets Rice allowed.

"I said, 'Let's come out in [the] second half and try to make St. Thomas earn their baskets,'" Braun said. "I thought we did a much better job in the second half by building our lead and limiting them to no offensive rebounds and very few transition baskets."

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Last year, Rice lost 72-59 to the Celts in the opening game. Braun said he wanted the team to go into the game with the mentality that the past was in the past and said he emphasized that the team should not focus on its previous losses before the game. 

"I always want us to play our best regardless of who we're playing, but certainly many of the guys on the team remember last year's loss to St. Thomas," Braun said. 

The Owls are a relatively young team, consisting of two seniors, two juniors, four sophomores and seven freshmen, three of whom saw significant minutes. Sophomore Max Guercy, who was named to the Conference USA All-Freshman team last season, talked about the transition over the offseason into being a leader for the team.

"Being more vocal is something I worked on this year," Guercy said. "It's also about making sure that I know where everyone is on the floor, making sure we know who we have on defense and lastly, making sure that everyone knows how to get into our offensive sets."

Guercy said certain skills are still a work in progress for the team that will have to be main focuses of practice in the coming weeks.

"We're going to have to work on our transition defense," Guercy said. "I thought we did a poor job for most of the game and allowed them to come back when they shouldn't have."

Freshman Marcus Jackson said he was not concerned with finding his specific role on the team after the first game. He said he was more worried about bringing a high level of intensity and effort whenever he was on the court. He finished his debut game with 12 points and five assists.

"I just want to come in and bring defensive energy to the game," Jackson said. 

Guercy said it is always good for a team to win the first game of the season because it starts everybody off in the right direction.

"It feels a lot better this year," Guercy said. "Everyone on the team is happy and ready to focus on the next game."

The Owls were set to play Southeastern Louisiana University Nov. 12 at Tudor Fieldhouse in their second home game of the season, but at the time of printing, the game had not yet been played.

The Owls will head to College Station Nov. 15 at 7 p.m., where they will play Texas A&M University for their first road game of the season. The last time the two teams met, in 2011, Rice beat Texas A&M 65-58. 

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