Rice looks to even Conference USA mark
HOUSTON, TX – Rice closes out a stretch in which it plays four of five Conference USA games at home and both the Owls and tonight’s opponent, UTEP, will look to close out the first half of the league season in hopes of moving their conference record to .500.
Rice, now 12-10 and 3-4 in C-USA play, is coming off an 88-74 win over Tulane to end a three-game losing streak. The victory also marked the Owls’ first conference, home-court win of the year.
Now, Rice looks to win two in a row as the Owls take on a UTEP team which is 10-11 and 3-4 in conference play following an 81-76 overtime loss at Houston over the weekend. Saturday’s loss dropped UTEP to 0-7 in road games this season.
Tonight’s game is slated for a 7 p.m. tip-off in Tudor Fieldhouse and will be broadcast by 1560 The Game (KGOW).
Rice has started three freshmen in each of its last two games. Rookie forward Ahmad Ibrahim is coming off a career-high, 23-point effort in the Owls’ win over Tulane. With the performance, Ibrahim raised his season scoring average to 6.7 points per game. Through seven conference games which included six starts, Ibrahim is averaging 9.3 points an outing.
Freshman point guard Dylan Ennis had 11 assists in last week’s win over the Green Wave, the most assists by a Rice player in six years. Ennis’ 5.3 assists per game average in league games leads C-USA. He is also averaging 7.8 points and 4.1 rebounds, second-most on the team.
Also last week, senior guard Connor Frizzelle scored a season-high 22 points raising his season scoring average to 9.7 points an outing.
Junior forward Arsalan Kazemi heads into the week leads the Owls in both scoring (13.1 ppg) and rebounding (11.3 rpg). With his next double-double, Kazemi will tie former Memphis standout Kelly Wise (1999-2002) for the C-USA double-double record of 42.
For UTEP, Thursday’s game will be the third straight on the road for the Miners.
UTEP sophomore guard Michael Perez is averaging 12.1 points per game while senior forward Gabriel McCulley averages 11.7 points to lead UTEP in scoring. McCulley’s 60.3 field goal percentage ranks second in the league behind Kazemi’s 62.2 percentage.
Junior guard Jacques Streeter ranks second in Conference USA with a 4.5 assist average (95 total). Streeter is one of only two UTEP team members to have played in all 21 games this season (freshman forward Cedrick Lang is the other).
Following tonight’s game UTEP returns home to begin a three-game home stand Saturday against UAB. The Miners will play five of their final eight games at home.
Rice begins a two-game road swing on Saturday traveling to East Carolina. The Owls also play across town at Houston next Wednesday. Rice returns home for a Feb. 11 game against SMU.
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