Hoping for a bounce back. 5-0 Rice. I don't see us losing if we shut them out.

10-0 Rice. As I've said all along, Pera is the greatest defensive coach this sport has ever seen.

Holy sh!t a 10-0 run to open the game!!! Let’s keep that blowtorch lit.

Two FTs for WKU. 10-2 Rice. Fire Pera.

Bombs away!!

If the BOB had been there we would have yelled
“Five! Five! Five times your score! Ha ha haaaa!”

22-9 Rice. Olivari has decided to take matters into his own hands. Two deep, contested 3s.

25-9 Rice. Olivari unconscious. Hand in his face, fading into the corner, doesn't matter.

Rice into a zone at the 11:24 mark. Decent first possession, but let's see how this works. I'm on the record hating both the men and women's zones.

Guys, we have a reffing crew that is actually not rewarding defenders for throwing themselves to the ground on drives. I might've died and gone to heaven.

And now I've seen Travis Evee with a multiple effort defensive possession. I must be losing my mind. 27-14 Rice.

Good defensive play by Akuchie, bad offensive play by Akuchie. Rice leads 29-14 at the U8. 18 points and 8 rebounds already for Olivari.

Now Jones with a strip and transition assist. What am I watching...

Now Jones with a cut and finish through a defender. What am I watching...

Okay, we're back to normal. Refs blow a block/charge call. 33-14 Rice.

Rice timeout after WKU cuts it to 36-22. Can't let them win the last 4 minutes. So much good work this half on both ends and if we go into the break up fewer than 15, it'll feel like a loss.

15 or so minutes of elite level basketball and all of a sudden we've turned into Delaware State over the past few minutes. Lead now down to single digits. Olivari is cold and as it turns out, he was carrying our offense over the first part of the game.

No offense to Delaware State. Fun fact: they have one of my favorite college box scores ever. Beat Coppin State in a game where they had a player score 40 points and another player who had 33 points and 30 rebounds. https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/box...state.html

WKU shooting is improving, and the refs don’t want to be left out. Lead down to 12.

Lieppert hits a 3, then lays one in at the buzzer after a steal at half-court. 43-27 Rice. Massive contribution from Lieppert. The 3 in particular was big. Shot clock winding down and he had to shoot it over Sharp who is a slightly large human being.

43-27 at the half. That should be enough to survive the inevitable ice-cold stretch. Go Owls!

Three very good looks for Sheffield tonight and he's missed all of them. Hasn't hurt us yet but I don't like tempting fate.

WKU starts the half on a 10-3 run.