Owls Valiant Effort Not Enough Against Horns
HOUSTON, TX (Tudor Fieldhouse) -- The Rice Owls battled the third-ranked Texas Longhorns Sunday afternoon inside the "House of Tudor"; but, in the end, the Horns had too much size (re: Dexter Pittman -- all 6'10", 290 plus pounds of him) and shot makers for the Owls. Rice lost 77-59 to the Horns in front of a very partisan, burnt orange crowd of 4,669 fans.
Pittman began the game with a slam dunk which set the tone for the ball game because the slimmer Owls simply could not match up with his size.
"I think I'm the biggest player in college basketball," Pittman said. "If I see the ref let it go, then I'm going to turn on my physical game."
Pittman scored 21 points and pulled down nine rebounds; however, those numbers only tell part of the story. The more the Longhorns worked the ball inside-out first the quicker the Owls front court players got into foul trouble. Three different Rice players (Cliff Ghoram, Emerson Herndon, and Lucas Kuipers) fouled out and four Owls were called for four fouls each.
The Longhorns attempted 46 free throws in the game (made 31) compared to just 14 free throw attempts for the Owls (made eight).
The Owls stayed close to the Longhorns through the first 11 plus minutes of the first half. Owls junior forward Trey Stanton threw down a dunk to pull Rice within four points (16 to 12) with 8:54 remaining in the first half. However, seven different Horns scored during a 15 to 4 run to stretch the lead 31 to 16 with just 2:54 left in the opening half.
Rice finished the half with a 7 to 2 run to trail the Longhorns 33 to 23 at the half.
The Longhorns attempted 11 three-point shots in the first half while Dexter Pittman attempted two field goals.
Longhorns head coach Rick Barnes told his team to cut down on the threes and get the ball to Pittman in the second half.
Mission accomplished. The Horns attempted 6 threes in the second half; and, Pittman got six field goal attempts and six more free throws.
"Offensively, Dex needs to touch the ball more," said Coach Barnes. "They (Rice) went zone; and, I told the team 'my fault' because we haven't spent enough time playing against a zone defense; but, when we do that, Dex needs to touch the ball as much as possible. Because, one, he can create and draw a crowd; and, more importantly, he's a very good passer out of it."
In addition to working the ball inside-out more in the second half, the Longhorns pushed the tempo much more and scored more baskets in transition early in the second stanza.
Trailing 46 to 31, the Owls began a methodical comeback and pulled within five points (61 - 56) after a fast break dunk by freshman Arsalan Kazemi with 6:17 remaining in the ball game.
However, Pittman went to work on the block and scored a jump hook and drained two free throws to put the Horns up 10 (66 - 56) with 5:04 remaining.
Rice got within seven points (66 - 59); but, Longhorns' freshman guard J'Covan Brown converted a lay-up and a tough pull up jumper shot to boost the lead to 11 points with 2:25 on the game clock. The Owls didn't score any more in the ball game while the Horns added seven more free throws for the final margin of victory.
"When I hit that jumper," Brown said after the game. "I felt like I was in the flow."
After the game, Owls coach Ben Braun was please with his team's effort.
"I liked our effort. I thought that our guys played hard. At times, we didn't always play smart. I thought We took some early fouls and were over zealous and reached in. If your team is going to make errors, I'd rather those errors be made playing aggressively rather than passively. We've got to be smarter about our fouls; obviously, we didn't want to put Texas at the line 46 times. That hurt us. A lot.
"I thought we settled in and played some defense. We held them to 35 percent; but, we had some key turnovers when the game was tight."
Suleimon Braimoh led the Owls with 12 points (6 for 9 from the field) followed by 10 points from teammate Trey Stanton. Stanton played only 21 minutes due to foul trouble.
Though the Longhorns did not display their 'A' game Sunday afternoon, the Owls believe they let a golden opportunity for an upset slip through their fingers.
"Missed opportunity. We got close to the third best team in the country," said Owls' freshman guard Tamir Jackson. "People aren't talking about Rice basketball. I think this was a missed chance. This game can give us more confidence that we can advance to postseason. This game helped out a lot. I know all of us wish we could have won this game; but, it just didn't go our way."
Pittman began the game with a slam dunk which set the tone for the ball game because the slimmer Owls simply could not match up with his size.
"I think I'm the biggest player in college basketball," Pittman said. "If I see the ref let it go, then I'm going to turn on my physical game."
Pittman scored 21 points and pulled down nine rebounds; however, those numbers only tell part of the story. The more the Longhorns worked the ball inside-out first the quicker the Owls front court players got into foul trouble. Three different Rice players (Cliff Ghoram, Emerson Herndon, and Lucas Kuipers) fouled out and four Owls were called for four fouls each.
The Longhorns attempted 46 free throws in the game (made 31) compared to just 14 free throw attempts for the Owls (made eight).
The Owls stayed close to the Longhorns through the first 11 plus minutes of the first half. Owls junior forward Trey Stanton threw down a dunk to pull Rice within four points (16 to 12) with 8:54 remaining in the first half. However, seven different Horns scored during a 15 to 4 run to stretch the lead 31 to 16 with just 2:54 left in the opening half.
Rice finished the half with a 7 to 2 run to trail the Longhorns 33 to 23 at the half.
The Longhorns attempted 11 three-point shots in the first half while Dexter Pittman attempted two field goals.
Longhorns head coach Rick Barnes told his team to cut down on the threes and get the ball to Pittman in the second half.
Mission accomplished. The Horns attempted 6 threes in the second half; and, Pittman got six field goal attempts and six more free throws.
"Offensively, Dex needs to touch the ball more," said Coach Barnes. "They (Rice) went zone; and, I told the team 'my fault' because we haven't spent enough time playing against a zone defense; but, when we do that, Dex needs to touch the ball as much as possible. Because, one, he can create and draw a crowd; and, more importantly, he's a very good passer out of it."
In addition to working the ball inside-out more in the second half, the Longhorns pushed the tempo much more and scored more baskets in transition early in the second stanza.
Trailing 46 to 31, the Owls began a methodical comeback and pulled within five points (61 - 56) after a fast break dunk by freshman Arsalan Kazemi with 6:17 remaining in the ball game.
However, Pittman went to work on the block and scored a jump hook and drained two free throws to put the Horns up 10 (66 - 56) with 5:04 remaining.
Rice got within seven points (66 - 59); but, Longhorns' freshman guard J'Covan Brown converted a lay-up and a tough pull up jumper shot to boost the lead to 11 points with 2:25 on the game clock. The Owls didn't score any more in the ball game while the Horns added seven more free throws for the final margin of victory.
"When I hit that jumper," Brown said after the game. "I felt like I was in the flow."
After the game, Owls coach Ben Braun was please with his team's effort.
"I liked our effort. I thought that our guys played hard. At times, we didn't always play smart. I thought We took some early fouls and were over zealous and reached in. If your team is going to make errors, I'd rather those errors be made playing aggressively rather than passively. We've got to be smarter about our fouls; obviously, we didn't want to put Texas at the line 46 times. That hurt us. A lot.
"I thought we settled in and played some defense. We held them to 35 percent; but, we had some key turnovers when the game was tight."
Suleimon Braimoh led the Owls with 12 points (6 for 9 from the field) followed by 10 points from teammate Trey Stanton. Stanton played only 21 minutes due to foul trouble.
Though the Longhorns did not display their 'A' game Sunday afternoon, the Owls believe they let a golden opportunity for an upset slip through their fingers.
"Missed opportunity. We got close to the third best team in the country," said Owls' freshman guard Tamir Jackson. "People aren't talking about Rice basketball. I think this was a missed chance. This game can give us more confidence that we can advance to postseason. This game helped out a lot. I know all of us wish we could have won this game; but, it just didn't go our way."
posted by Kris G @ 9:17 PM
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