Rice University Athletics
Rice University
1-0
Paul Quinn
0-2
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paul Quinn College | 33 | 33 | 66 |
| Rice | 54 | 64 | 118 |
Owls Crush Paul Quinn College 118-66
11/11/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 11, 2006
Rice's Morris Almond led five Owls in double-figures with 24 points as Rice crushed Paul Quinn College, 118-66, in the season-opening game for Rice in front of 1,154 fans at Autry Court.
"This is probably the only game that I can remember where we sustained our energy and intensity for the whole 40 minutes of the game," commented Rice head coach Willis Wilson. "We ran the our offense on each trip down the court and we played solid defense on the other end."
In scoring 24 points on 7-11 from the field and 9-12 at the free throw line, Almond became the 28th Owl to score over 1,000 points. He now has 1,005 career points. He also had three steals, two assists, two rebounds, and 1 block.
Also scoring in double-digits for Rice were Cory Pflieger with a career-high 17 points (6-8 FGs), Rodney Foster with a career-high 16 points (5-5 FGs), freshman Chris Hagan, in his first career-start, scored 13 points (6-9 FGs) with five assists, and Lorenzo Williams scored 11 points with 7 assists. Thirteen of 14 Rice players that played scored at least two points. Scoring their first-ever field goals for Rice were sophomores Chris Szalay and Jonathan Bailey, freshmen Charles Belton and Lawrence Ghoram, and junior junior college transfer Marius Craciun.
The Owls out-rebounded the Tiges 35-22 as Patrick Britton led Rice with 6 boards. Defensively, Rice totaled 9 steals and 3 blocks, while committing only 12 turnovers.
For the night, Rice set a school record in field goal percentage by making 43-60 shots for 71.7 percent. The old record was 67.7 percent set on Dec. 30, 2003, vs. Dallas. The Owls blistered the nets in the first-half at 75 percent (21-28) and shot 68.8 percent (22-32) in the second-half.
The Owls also set a school scoring record with 118 points, surpassing the 113 scored upon Grambling State on Dec. 6, 2004. And, the 14 three-pointers canned by Rice ties the school record of 14 made at UNLV (Jan. 14, 1999). The Owls also had 28 assists on the night one shy of the school record (29) set vs. Dallas (Dec. 30, 2003).
The Owls now play Gonzaga on Tuesday, Nov. 14 at 11:05 pm (CST) in the Dicks' Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-off from Spokane, Wash. That game can be seen live on ESPN2.
