Rout improves Owls to 3-0
Max Fiedler had his third straight double-double as Rice ran away from Le Tourneau in the second half en route to a 94-74 victory in its home opener Thursday afternoon at Tudor Fieldhouse. Fiedler had16 points and 11 rebounds and added four assists. He is the first Rice player to start the season with three straight doubledoubles since Arsalan Kazemi in 2010-11. The Owls are 3-0 for the first time since starting 4-0 in 2011-12.
“It was an afternoon game, first home game (and) first game without fans at all,” Rice coach Scott Pera said. It was just a weird situation. But, once we got ourselves going, I thought we got in a pretty good rhythm. I was a little disappointed in our defensive effort today. It’s going to have to be better now that we go on the road for two games. But we’re looking forward to it. We’re happy to be 3-0 and to get the win today.”
Rice and LeTourneau have never playing during the regular season. They met in exhibition play in 2014 and 2015.
Rice started off slow, making just one basket in the first three minutes while turning the ball over three times. LeTourneau made four of its first five shots to jump out to a 9-2 lead. Rice slowly began to chip away at the deficit, taking its first lead at 12-11 on a free throw by Jake Lieppert midway through the first half. The teams traded leads before Quincy Olivari broke a 14-14 tie with a 3pointer. The teams went back-and-forth over the next two minutes. With Rice leading 23-21, it went on a 9-2 run behind five points from Olivari to take a 32-23 lead with six minutes remaining in the first half. The Yellow Jackets cut the deficit to six, but a Chris Mullins layup sent the Owls on a 9-2 run over the final 2:34 to grab a 46-33 halftime lead.
The teams traded 3pointers to open the second half. Layups by Fiedler and Travis Evee sent the Owls on an 11-3 run, capped off by a Fiedler dunk, as Rice extended its lead to 61
39. LeTourneau would get no closer than 15 points as the Owls led by as many as 23.
Olivari finished the game with 15 points and a careerhigh six rebounds. Tre Clark added a career-high 14 points.