Road skid extends to seven
Owls come up short vs. Bulldogs in their final regular-season game
At least Rice came out and competed Saturday afternoon. It was an encouraging effort from the Owls, who were attempting to split the weekend series against Louisiana Tech, one of Conference USA’s better teams and one that is difficult to beat at its place.
One day after being blown out by the Bulldogs, the Owls put up a fight. And they got solid production from post Max Fiedler, who put up 10 points and 10 rebounds playing with a mask and broken nose suffered in Friday’s beatdown.
But a six-point Rice lead midway through the opening half didn’t hold up, and for the second straight day, the Owls couldn’t keep up with the Bulldogs. In their regular season C-USA finale, the Owls lost to Louisiana Tech 79-58 in Ruston, La.
“Out of the gate, our kids were ready,” Owls coach Scott Pera said. “The first eight minutes, we played tremendous, which made it a game. Unfortunately, it got away from us because we were in pretty good rhythm.”
On Friday, in the first of back-to-back games at Thomas Assembly Center, the Owls never led and shot only 32.3 percent from the field, losing to the Bulldogs 101-57. Fiedler played only six minutes after taking an elbow to the face.
The Owls were more competitive on Saturday, leading by as many as six points before the Bulldogs closed out the half on a 27-8 run to lead 40-27 at the break.
“That’s where we lost the game,” Pera said. “We became a little unraveled, started playing too fast. They sped us up and they increased the lead. It should have been a five- or six-point game at halftime, not 13.”
Even after falling behind at the break, the Owls fought back, getting to within four points of the Bulldogs midway through the second half.
“We defended well, and on the offensive side, we were able to share the ball, get good shots and knock them down,” Fiedler said.
No one was more consistent in their shooting than Riley Abercrombie, whose 15 points all came on 3pointers.
An Abercrombie 3-pointer gave Rice its largest lead, 19-13 with 9:48 remaining in the first half which was matched by a layup from Travis Evee which put the Owls ahead 21-15. And after losing the lead, the Owls crept to within four midway through the second half. The fourth of Abercrombie’s 3-pointers closed the deficit to 55-51 with 10:10 to play.
“We were right there, just couldn’t hang with them down the stretch,” Pera said.
With 16 points, Quincy Olivari was the leading scorer for the Owls (12-12, 6-10). Olivari had an offensive explosion to start the second half that got the Owls back in the game, scoring the half ’s first eight points. The conference’s top 3-point shooter got the Owls to within 40-35 when he opened the final 20 minutes by making two 3-pointers along with a mid-range jumper.
“Quincy’s a streaky scorer who can score buckets,” Pera said. “When he gets going, he can do that. We got to get better efficiency from him.”
Despite the streaky stretch, Olivari was 4 of 16 from the field. Rice, which was 11 off 11 from the foul line, shot 19 of 56 from the field, 9 of 34 on 3-pointers.
Kalob Ledoux and Kenneth Lofton Jr. paced Louisiana Tech (19-6, 12-4), winner of 11 of its last 13 games, with 17 points each. Isaiah Crawford added 14 with nine rebounds for the Bulldogs, who enjoyed a 40-31 edge on the boards.
The Bulldogs benefited from a 22-4 first-half run and 13-0 second-half blitz which upped their advantage to 68-51. The runs helped the
Bulldogs win for the 44th time in 47 games at Thomas Assembly Center.
“They went on big runs and it was hard to come back,” Fiedler said. “They get after it on the defensive end, and at their place, they make it a tough place to play.”
In losing for the seventh straight time on the road, the Owls are 0-6 on the season when scoring fewer than 66 points.
This past week, C-USA made the decision to expand the field in its conference tournament to which all 14 teams can compete, rather than limiting the tournament to the top 12 teams.
Saturday was Rice’s final scheduled regular season game. Pera said following the contest that the Owls likely will schedule a nonconference game at home to be played Thursday or Friday before the start of the conference tournament March 9-13 in Frisco.