Owls fall in final tuneup before conference play

Kai Mitchell scored 27 points to help Sam Houston State put a damper on Rice’s best non-conference start under third-year coach Scott Pera with a 75-61 victory at Tudor Fieldhouse on Sunday.

“Tough loss,” said forward Robert Martin, whose Owls fell to 8-5. “This is one that we really wanted. … We want to go into conference with some momentum. We didn’t take care and do what we needed to do today, didn’t handle our business, so now we have to rebuild.”

Both teams struggled to score early, but the Bearkats (9-4) used a 13-2 run to take a 36-29 lead at halftime.

“They played really good defense, and we didn’t execute to the best of our abilities,” said Rice guard Payton Moore, who totaled 11 points and three steals. “We pride ourselves on finishing halves strong. We didn’t do it today. Any time a team goes on a run, you just have to come together and be more mentally tough.”

Mitchell scored Sam Houston State’s first nine points of the second half as part of an 11-5 spree that made it 47-34. Demarkus Lampley gave the Bearkats their biggest edge with a 3pointer that put them up by 16.

Paced by Mitchell’s 13 boards, the Bearkats outrebounded Rice 40-34 and held the edge in paint scoring 34-26.

“(Rice’s frontcourt) had a tough time today, but everyone had a tough time with him today,” said Pera of

Mitchell.

Chris Mullins led Rice with 13 points. Trey Murphy III added 11.

After winning seven games in his first season and five non-conference games last year, Pera is confident his team will be competitive when Conference USA play starts with a pair of road games at Marshall and Western Kentucky on Thursday and Friday. Marshall was the 2018 C-USA tournament champion, and Western Kentucky was the tournament runner-up the last two seasons.

After relying on a handful of players to carry the Owls’ scoring load in previous years, Rice will enter conference play more balanced. Four players (Martin, Murphy, Drew Peterson and Ako Adams) are averaging double-figure scoring, twice as many as in Pera’s first season.

“The teams we’ve lost to have been very good teams, and we’ve also beaten some very good teams,” Pera said. “The key is how do we react to this today, moving forward into Thursday, because we open with five of the first seven (C-USA) games on the road.”