Men's basketball moves on in C-USA

By Brody Rollins and Yan Digilov     3/12/09 7:00pm

It is never too late to save the best for last. The 10th-seeded men's basketball team played the part of Cinderella at the Conference USA tournament on Wednesday, upsetting fifth-seeded Marshall University 60-59 just one week after losing by 14 to the Thundering Herd (15-17, 7-9 C-USA) in Huntington, W.V. The victory means the Owls (10-21, 4-12 C-USA) will face Tulsa University on Thursday in the quarterfinals of the C-USA tournament, which is held in Memphis, Tenn. Tulsa (10-9, 12-4 C-USA), the second seed, had a first round bye after finishing second in the conference to the University of Memphis.

The Owls lost to Tulsa in their last game of the regular season 60-50 at Tudor Fieldhouse, although Rice was leading by one at the break. An 8-0 run by the Golden Hurricane to start the second half, coupled with a dominating performance in the post by center and NBA prospect Jerome Jordan, spoiled Rice's chances for the win.

Jordan, widely regarded as a potential late first-round pick if he enters the draft this season, scored 15 points in their first meeting, but more importantly limited the Owls' chances in the interior as the team struggled to hit shots from the perimeter.

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Despite that recent setback against Tulsa, the team remained upbeat about their chances on Thursday.

"Last year when we had zero wins in conference, we would come to somebody's court and they wouldn't respect us," senior forward Aleks Perka said. "We feel like we can go into the tournament and make a pretty good run. The only two teams that we've really struggled against this year have been the University of Memphis and the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Everybody else, we were in the game right until the end."

Perka's words rang true on Wednesday as the Owls held off the Thundering Herd, who were the clear favorites in the game on paper.

The Owls may have had a slight advantage heading into the rematch, however, having recently seen the full-court press employed by the diminutive Marshall starting lineup, whose tallest player is just 6'6''.

The Thundering Herd in not the only team that employs the press against the Owls, but they may have been the most effective. In the March 4 game Marshall forced 13 turnovers from Rice and scored the majority of its points of fast breaks and put-backs in transition.

"The last couple of games the real problem has been battling through pressure defense, both in the full court and in the half court," Perka said. "The same thing rings true for the University of Houston, Tulsa and the Marshall games. In the second half the team really starts pressing us and we get back on our heels. We kind of take a step back and let the other team take control of the game."

Going into halftime the Owls were down 22-20, but opened up the second half on a 23-8 run that had them up 43-30 with nine minutes to play. That run proved to be the difference as the Owls turned the ball over a number of times towards the end, which made it interesting in the final minutes. For the game, Rice had 20 turnovers, but managed to win by holding the Thundering Herd to 35 percent shooting in the game, including 3-24 from behind the arc.

"I thought our post guys did a good job defensively," head coach Ben Braun said. "We didn't give Markel (Humphrey) a lot of angles in the post. The first time we played them, he really got good inside angles and really got easy inside scores."

Junior guard Lawrence Ghoram scored a season-high 18 points in the game and freshman guard Connor Frizzelle added 14. Two other players scored in double-figures for the Owls, who managed to win without any points from their bench.

Even if the Owls are able to continue their Cinderella story with an upset over Tulsa, there remains a large obstacle in their road to the NCAA Tournament. Memphis has won the conference tournament for the last three years in a row and claimed the regular season title once again with a 28-3 record. To make things more difficult for any would-be upsets to occur, the tournament is being held in Memphis this year, giving them a convincing home-court advantage.

But even if Rice is unable to make a strong run in the tournament this year, there is no doubt that Braun has delivered on his promise to make the team better at the end of the year than they were at the beginning. After falling victim to key second-half runs from opponents all year, the squad exhibited its maturity by building up a 13-point lead after being down at half, a welcomed role-reversal after a season of late-half collapses.

However, there were some discouraging developments for Rice fans this week. One of the highest ranked recruits in the nation, DeMarcus Cousins from Birmingham, Ala., declared his intention to join the Tigers' squad next year, even though Rice was in Cousins' final five options, according to scout.com. While the news was tough to swallow for those who were dreaming of a top recruit turning Rice into a basketball powerhouse, it was a piece of expected news for others who were surprised to see Rice's name on Cousins' list in the first place. Braun's pursuit of Cousins, despite overwhleming odds against a Rice commitment, gave further evidence that he is determined to compete with Memphis in whatever manner he can.

Regardless of their perceived position in the C-USA hierarchy, the Owls will continue to carry a confidence that they are better than their record suggests and that they are committed to getting better every game. Any wins in the tournament only confirm their assertion.

Up-to-date coverage of the Owls' run in the C-USA Tournament can be found at http://www.ricethresher.org.

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