Big four minutes here. Penn cuts it to 17 and we're 1 for our last 6.

Penn on a 7-0 run. 46 - 63.

Penn has now scored on it's last 4 trips down the floor, but Rice finally gets a couple buckets to right the ship: 68 - 48 with 9 minutes to go.

Mullins still way off his game-- 1-8 from the field, and the one bucket was a layup.

And just like that Penn is now scoring every trip down the court.

Penn chipping away at the lead. 16 points at the TO.

Ako Adams injured. Hand.

Left hand. Dislocated pinkie?

Rice up 19 at the final media break. Just 5 points combined from Mullins (2) and Martin (3). It's pretty encouraging so many different young guys are stepping it up against a quality team with true postseason aspirations.

Arguably Peterson's best game since the first week of last season, but also really strong games from Adams, Moore, Murphy, Oliveri and Fiedler.

74 - 55 with under 4:00 minutes to go.

Pretty good job weathering the inevitable Penn run. Lead still 19 at the under-4.

22 point lead with a minute and a half to play. Great job Owls!

Final: 80-61

Wow!! WTG, Owls!!

Rice wins 80-61. Easily the best NC win of Coach Pera's Rice era. But please don't ask me for what was the best win up until then :)

It's worth noting (or perhaps repeating if it was mentioned earlier) that Penn was picked 2nd in the Ivy League preseason poll, beat us by 16 at their place last year, and is coming off a road win at Alabama to start the season.

Really solid job, and a superior rebound from the Arkansas debacle. Too many good efforts to mention them all, but I'm particularly pleased by the freshman Fiedler's 8 points and 11 rebounds off the bench. He might be starting by tomorrow.

Nice win.

Looks like a roller coaster season ahead.

Massive, massive win. No other way to see it. Awful game on Tuesday, awful first few minutes, and then to respond with those last 35 min is gutsy by the staff and the players. Moore, Fiedler, Olivari all stepped up. Adams was his dependable self.

Good day for Owls basketball!

Rice with the 80 - 61 upset stunner.

Adams: 17 points, 4 assists
Peterson: 13 points, 8 boards, 2 assists, 3 blocks
Fiedler: 8 points (4-5 FG), 11 boards, 2 assists, 3 blocks in only 22 minutes
Moore: 10 points, 7 boards, 3 assists in 22 minutes

The Roost
@AtTheRoost
·
12m
Ako Adams jammed his finger diving for a loose ball late in the second half. He was icing it after the game but didn't sound like he expected it to be too serious.

I was debating springing for a CUSATV one-day account to watch this, but after seeing the early score, decided not to waste my money to see another depressing performance.

Boy, how happy am I to have been wrong. Congrats to the team!!!

Trey had some big rebounds as well. Unfortunately he was saddled with foul trouble but the rest of the team didn’t let it bother them. Just a great day on the boards. Penn’s scoring was basically their Sr center and their Frosh guard with 20 & 22 respectively.

Tough to think of an analogue for this one in Rice's annals . . . from out of nowhere, a Rice team that appeared to be dead in the water doesn't just pull off an upset over a true-quality opponent, but dominates. Maybe the 51-10 Utah football win in '96? That was a Rice team that had lost to Ohio State, Kansas State, and Air Force by a combined score of 149-31, but they'd actually gotten up off the deck already (3 straight wins) before the Utah game so that's probably not the best example.

Also, Pera just earned some major respect in my analysis. Benching not one but two starters, for a hyped-up home game, with the team in danger of going off the rails, was a very gutsy move . . . and look at the outcome.

Frankly one of the most satisfying wins in many many years. Strong performance by the three freshmen who played, particularly Fiedler and Olivari. Lots of contributions across the board on offense and defense. And when was the last time we had continuity with this many players (Almond's senior year?-what was that 12/13 years ago? geesh) and when you don't have the talent of a Duke or Kansas, how critical is that. In some ways, bskb has been close at times and if we just had that continuity, maybe that long awaited breakout could have happened (think how it looked right before the two massive transfers).

Now no doubt this is getting the cart way before the horse and it is very early, but this group has some skills with the possibility that you just won't know who will be "on" for a particular game. If the big men don't get overwhelmed (and my only other look at Fiedler was at the season ticket outing and I liked what I saw), it could be a nice season and a building block for future success.