Rice University Athletics
Rice Travels to Hawkeye Challenge
11/29/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 29, 2007
IOWA CITY, Iowa - Rice will look to notch its first win and at the same time advance to an in-season tournament championship game Friday when the Owls open take on Eastern Illinois in opening round of the Hawkeye Challenge. Tip-off is slated for 5:45 p.m. in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
The other first-round game Friday pits host Iowa against Louisiana Monroe.
Rice is 0-4 on the year following a 59-52 home-court loss to Arkansas-Little Rock on Tuesday. Eastern Illinois enters the tournament at 1-4 and has lost its last four games. EIU's last three games have all been played on the road and the Panthers have been outscored by an average of 16 points in those games.
Eastern Illinois is led by sophomore guard Romain Martin who is averaging 14.4 points an outing while senior wing Bobby Catchings is averaging 12.4 points for the Panthers. Martin has made 14-of-35 three-pointers through EIU's first five games of the season.
The Panthers have one tie to Texas as EIU third-year coach Mike Miller's last head coaching position was at Texas State.
Rice has used four different lineups in four games this season. Only senior Paulius Packevicius has started all four contests this season for the Owls. The senior is also the team's leading scorer and rebounder, averaging 13.5 points and 9.8 rebounds.
Freshman point guard Jasen Williams and freshman forward Suleiman Braimoh have both started each of the Owls' last two games.
In his last two starts, Williams has played better than 30 minutes in both outings. Earlier this week against UALR he scored a team-high 13 points and also had four assists.
Junior Cory Pflieger is second on the Rice squad in scoring, averaging 9.3 points per game. He has started three games including a team-high matching 13 points earlier this week against UALR. However, Pflieger's highest scoring night came against Richmond when he scored 14 points on 5-for-10 shooting off the bench last week. Pflieger is also the team's leading three-point shooter, averaging 2.5 three-pointers per game,
Host Iowa enters the tournament at 4-3 but the Hawkeyes have lost their last three, including a 56-47 setback to Wake Forest earlier in the week. Iowa will play at 8:05 p.m. both nights because of television commitments with the Big 10 Network.
The Hawkeyes' first-round opponent, Louisiana-Monroe, is 2-4 following a 105-75 win over Alcorn State on Tuesday to snap a three-game losing streak.
Iowa has won 24 of the 25 tournament titles and is 49-1 in the Hawkeye Challenge.
Rice is making its first appearance in Iowa's tournament. The Owls went 2-2 in tournaments played in season last year, winning second-round games during the NIT Preseason Tournament and at the St. Mary's College Classic.
