Olivari leads Owls in win over Monarchs

Quincy Olivari poured in a game-high 23 points, mostly from long range. Payton Moore hit perhaps the biggest shot. And when Rice needed points the most, Chris Mullins delivered.

Major contributions from the three, plus a 14point outing from Travis Evee and a steady performance from Max Fiedler, led to the Owls getting the upper hand on Old Dominion 69-59 on Friday afternoon. It was the first of back-to-back ConferenceUSA games between the teams at Tudor Fieldhouse. Saturday’s matchup tips off at 1 p.m.

“Just guys making plays,” Owls coach Scott Pera said. “Proud of the group and the start of the season they have. And try to beat Old Dominion again.”

Leading by as many as 20 points in the first half, Rice never trailed in running its record to 10-3 and 4-1 in the

West Division and holding the Monarchs 11 points below their season scoring average. The win is only the second against the Monarchs in the series 12 games and first at home.

Rice’s largest lead was 42-22 with 3:17 remaining in the opening half on one of Olivari’s seven made 3pointers, capping a 19-2 run. Rice led 42-29 at the half.

“It was a fun first half,” Pera said. “We knew Old Dominion is going to come back. They’re so veteran tough.”

Led by Malik Curry, who scored 18 points on 7 of 12 shooting, and Austin Trice, who totaled 15 points, Old Dominion indeed stormed back. The Monarchs pulled within six points (55-49) on a 10-0 run with still a quarter of the contest remaining.

The Monarchs’ response did not catch Olivari by surprise.

“We had to tell each other to lock in because they’re a good team and they’re not going to give up,” said the sharp-shooting Olivari. “It’s easy for a team to go up double digits and think we’re comfortable, and they started chipping away. We locked in on defense, got those stops and rebounds to close it out.”

A layup by Kalu Ezikpe, who finished with 10 points and seven rebounds, made it a 55-49 score and shifted the momentum to the Monarchs, who outscored the Owls in the second half 3027.

That’s when Moore made the shot that sniffed out the Monarchs rally and regained the Owls’ footing. Moore connected on a 3pointer that pushed the lead to nine points at the 9:41 mark. It was the only made basket for the 6-4 junior guard in three attempts en route to five points.

“I’m so happy for Payton Moore,” Pera said. “A kid that hasn’t played a ton, had a lost week with being in quarantine for a couple of days, and has the confidence to knock that shot down and Chris (Mullins) trusted to pass it to him. He’s what we’re all about in this program, character, character, character.”

Then Mullins took over to put the game out of reach. A 6-3 junior guard, Mullins scored Rice’s next seven points, turning defense into offense.

“I didn’t try to take it all on myself, but I tried to make the right plays and the ball just went in,” said Mullins, who was 6 of 14 from the field while adding six assists and five rebounds.

Perhaps overlooked was the play of Fiedler, a 6-11 sophomore, who collected 12 rebounds, had eight of Rice’s 19 assists, and added six points. Fiedler’s passing helped set up the Owls’ shooters.

The Owls made 14 of 42 3pointers for a respectable 33.3 percent. No one was more productive from long distance than Olivari, who was 7 of 17 on 3-pointers. En route to 17 first-half points, the 6-3 sophomore guard made three 3-pointers over four possessions.

“During that stretch, my teammates, they just kept looking for me,” Olivari said. “They believe in me so I shouldn’t second guess myself.”

“One thing about him, he’s a very good team player and we all know he can get a bucket at any time,” Mullins said.

Olivari was really on in the first half, making 5 of 10 3-pointers. The Owls successfully connected on 8 of 19 3-pointers in the half.

Rice scored the game’s first six points on 3-pointers from Riley Abercrombie and Evee. The closest the Monarchs could get was within a point at 12-11 following Curry’s layup with 12:54 remaining in the half.

From there Olivari began to flourish, hitting two 3pointers in the next twoplus minutes that put the Owls ahead 24-13. Rice doubled the score 26-13 with 8:20 left before the half following Cameron Sheffield’s layup.

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Center Nancy Mulkey scored 21 points and added eight rebounds and four assists as the Owls (9-1, 5-0 CUSA) won their fifth consecutive game.