Owls fall to 0-3 after losing their home opener

Rice men’s basketball coach Mike Rhoades is past excuses or moral victories.

“Or ‘getting close is good enough’, ” Rhoades said. “We’re not here for that.”

The Owls dropped their season home opener to Oregon State 77-69 on Thursday night, and Rhoades believes his team is realizing how hard it is to win a college basketball game. The loss was Rice’s third after two road losses to start the season.

Freshman guard Marcus Evans led the Owls with 18 points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal. He also had three turnovers.

Down by 19 in the second half, the Owls remembered that when they get punched in the mouth, they have to fight back together.

Redshirt sophomore Egor Koulechov, playing in his first regular-season game at Tudor Fieldhouse, knew the Owls had to stick together.

“We knew that one guy wasn’t going to bring us back,” said Koulechov, who had 16 points.

Rice pulled within six points of the Beavers (30), but then had a couple of 3-point attempts that didn’t f all and several turnovers.

“How many times did we throw it right to the other team today?” Rhoades said. “Our margin of error is small. … We can’t have those mistakes. If we have turnovers, they can’t lead to easy baskets.”

The Owls showed they are trying to learn f ast. They definitely showed their aggression.

Freshman guard Marquez Letcher-Ellis introduced himself to the home crowd with a dunk off a no-look pass from senior point guard Max Guercy eight minutes into the first half. Guercy saw Oregon State’s defense f ading to the left. He looked left and passed the ball into the low post.

Despite t he l oss, Rhoades saw the performance as Rice raising the bar on its play, its intensity, its toughness and its ability to play together.

“Now we need to come in tomorrow and never get below that bar,” he said.