Olivari hits wide open 3 to push the lead to 20, and then gets a technical. Must have said something.

Then Bobcats get a T for too many men on the field.

Both technical shooters hit 1 of 2.

62-42.

64-52 Rice. Need to regain our composure.

I was encouraged by the first few posts on this thread, but I must be bad luck. Both teams look pretty crappy this half.

And we do. 69-54 Rice.

69-58 Rice. Texas St hammering the ball into the paint. Nothing on the perimeter. Also defending us much better in the last 2-3 minutes.

9 pt game with under 5 to play. Owls making a game of it.

Unbelievably predictable offensive scheme sucks!
We could lose this.

Olivari 3, 26 pts, pushes it back to double digit lead.

72-62 Rice. Big 3 from Olivari to break us out of a flat/sluggish/stagnant stretch of offense.

And consistently outmuscled on the defensive boards.
No doubt we live and die by the shooting guard spread / 3 point game.

What an offensive rebound by Sheffield to give Rice another possession. Surrounded by 3-4 Texas St bodies.

Just continue making our FTs and stop fouling on the other end as the clock is our ally.

76-62 @1:56

76-62 Rice with 2 minutes left. Texas State already fouling trying to extend the game. I get fouling Fiedler and Mason, I don't get fouling Evee.

(12-04-2022 04:44 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  76-62 Rice with 2 minutes left. Texas State already fouling trying to extend the game. I get fouling Fiedler and Mason, I don't get fouling Evee.

??? Fiedler is one of our best FT shooters.

(12-04-2022 04:44 PM)elw4796 Wrote:  76-62 Rice with 2 minutes left. Texas State already fouling trying to extend the game. I get fouling Fiedler and Mason, I don't get fouling Evee.

And then Evee makes 1-2 to stay in single digits with 9 pts. Four other Owls in double figures.

Love Fielder, but sure miss our big man from last year who transferred. He gave us another dimension on offense.

Game has turned into FT practice for the Owls.

83-71 final. 1st road win!

Final: 83-71 Owls

Not particularly pretty, but first road win. You've got to start somewhere.

83-71 Rice. By far our most complete game of the season. We ran our sets well. We defended well individually and as a team. The bad moments we had weren't part of a pattern of errors, they were largely standalone mistakes. Texas State isn't a world-beater, but this is a solid road win.

Lot of contributions from a bunch of guys. Fiedler was his normal offensive self, but he had a stretch of impressive defending in the second half. Olivari looks like confident Olivari. Second straight game with 25+. Mason was quiet but solid. I've mentioned what I think of Sheffield a few times.

Nice to come back from being outside to see this final score. Maybe that gets us up to a D- on the road now this season (or even a D)?

I've mentioned a few times recently the defensive effort is definitely there. I had mentioned Olivari, Mason and Sheffield, but you can throw Evee into that group too as those are the four defenders on the outside. Olivari was really struggling on offense prior to these two games, but if he can sustain that stretch, that's good news for conference play.

We get a week off now and then Texas will bring us back to reality (and probably will bring out the negative nellies on this site asking for Pera to be fired). The bottom line is we're 6-2, and have a three game stretch after Texas that can get us to 9-3 perhaps as we head into the bulk of the conference season (although Northwestern State is showing signs they can be decent).