Men’s basketball records first two wins of season

By Michael Kidd     12/1/15 2:42pm

The Rice men’s basketball team played three games over the Thanksgiving recess and earned their first win of the season against Lamar University on Wednesday afternoon. The Owls were victorious once again against the University of California, Riverside on Friday night before dropping a contest to the University of Texas, Arlington on Sunday. The Owls currently sit at 2-5 on the season. 

Rice got off to a hot start against Lamar by jumping out to a 21-6 lead by the 13:17 mark of the first half. The Cardinals would respond over the next five minutes of play to make the score 27-23 with just over eight minutes left to play in the half. Despite shooting 60.7 percent from the field for the first half and knocking down 28 of 34 free throws for the game, the Owls continued to go back and forth with Lamar to the extent both teams were tied at 70 with eight minutes remaining. 

The Owls finished strong and held on for a 92-84 final score. Six different players scored in double-digits for Rice, led by 20 from freshman guard Marcus Evans. Other first-year players, guard Connor Cashaw and forward Egor Koulechov, scored 16 and 15 respectively while senior Max Guercy found most of his success from the free throw line going a perfect 10-10.

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In similar fashion to Wednesday night’s game, the Owls played Big West Conference foe, UC Riverside, in a back and forth high-intensity game. Towards the end of the first half, Rice managed to give themselves some breathing room, breaking off an 8-0 run to take the game into halftime leading 48-42. Late in the second period, the Owls broke off another run, this time of a 13-4 advantage to open up a 74-60 advantage. Another big offensive day allowed the Owls to outlast their opponent and win by a final score of 87-82. Four more players scored in double-figures for Rice including a career night from freshman forward Marquez Letcher-Ellis who contributed 17 points and 7 rebounds. The Owls had 16 assists on 33 field goals and won the rebounding battle for the first team this season 39-37. 

Riding a two-game winning streak, the Owls welcomed in the University of Texas, Arlington, a team who had recently beaten two of the most recognizable teams in college basketball, Ohio State University and the University of Memphis. The Owls could not contain the hot-shooting Mavericks who opened the game on 7-9 shooting from the field including four 3-pointers. 

Rice trailed 24-13 early but came back to cut the deficit to 29-26 at the 7:21 mark of the half. The Owls got as close as eight in the second half but could never trim the deficit that remained around the 12-14 point range most of the game. Rice had an opportunity to get close but the long-range shot was off for the Owls, who shot just 7-29 from three. Despite a memorable night for Koulechov, who was 10-15 from the floor with 28 points, the Owls lost 92-74. 

Just two days after a hard-earned and successful team win, Head Coach Mike Rhoades said he was disappointed by the lack of intensity his team had against the University of Texas, Arlington to close out the homestand.

“I know we have young guys and we’re going to be inconsistent at times but we have to have a level of urgency to play, play the right way and play our way,” Rhoades said. “They’re a really good team, but if we would have had better urgency today it might have been a game we could have won.” 

According to Rhoades, there is a lesson to every victory as well as every loss that can be used as encouragement for the future of this program moving forward.

“The moral of today’s story is you have to be ready to play basketball,” Rhoades said. “We learned the hard way today that we wasted an opportunity. I bet you all the guys including myself wish we had this one back but you don’t get them back. [That is] part of having a young team and working on changing the culture … but we’re going to fix it.”

According to Rhoades, the team will have to move on and get stronger moving forward.

“A lot of times it never goes as you want in life,” Rhoades said. “It’s not going how we want it right now so here’s your life lesson: What are you going to do? Pout, make excuses, point fingers, quit … or are you going to find a way to figure it out and fix it?”

The Owls will make the short trip to Houston Baptist University on Wednesday, Dec. 2  night at 7:30 p.m. for a intra-city battle against the Huskies. Following this game, the Owls return home to Tudor Fieldhouse to face St. Edward’s University on Saturday, Dec. 5  at 7:00 p.m. The team will then enter a 10-day recess period for final exams and the ending of the 2015 academic semester. 

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