Rice University
4-4
Lamar
3-6
Almond Leads Owls Past Cardinals, 83-71
12/6/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 6, 2006
HOUSTON (AP) -Morris Almond scored 36 points to lead Rice to an 83-71 victory over Lamar on Wednesday night.
Almond, who came into the contest averaging 29.3 points per game, made 11 of 17 shots from the field (65 percent), including 21 points on 7-of-9 (78 percent) shooting from 3-point range. He scored 20 of his 36 points in the second half.
The 36 points by Almond marks the fourth time this season that the silky smooth shooter has eclipsed the 30-point mark.
Almond is now averaging 30.1 points a game on the season and is now 17th on the Rice career chart with 1,222 points. In his last six games, Almond is averaging 34 points by making 57 percent of his field goals (69-122), 56 percent from three-point range (20-36), and 82 percent at the line (46-56).
Lamar (3-6) led 42-40 with 14:45 left in the game after a Lamar Sanders basket, but Rice (4-4) then went on an 8-0 run and led the remainder of the way.
The Owls' biggest lead was 13 points, the last time at 76-63 on a basket by Paulius Packevicius with 3:14 left.
Lamar was led by Sanders with 18 points. James Davis added 16.
Greg Killings added 11 points and three blocks, while Chris Hagan scored 10 with 6 assists for Rice.
Although Rice led just 33-30 at halftime, it never trailed in the first half.
The Owls scored the first six points of the game and held Lamar scoreless until the 16:49 mark when Matthew Barrow scored on a layup.
Rice eventually opened a 12-2 advantage on a Rodney Foster 3-pointer with 15:54 showing. The Owls held their biggest lead of the half at 25-14 when Almond connected on consecutive 3-pointers, the last with 7:21 remaining.
