Rice University
11-10, 5-3
East Carolina
5-16, 0-8
Rice Beats East Carolina, 83-74
2/3/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2007
Houston - Rice's Morris Almond scored a game-high 34 points as the Owls came from behind to beat East Carolina 83-74 in front of 1,543 fans at Autry Court. The Owls were down 42-37 at the half but outscored the Pirates 46 to 32 in the second half for the win. The Owls are now tied with UCF and Houston for second place in Conference USA at 5-3.
"In the second half it was all about effort and energy," commented Rice head coach Willis Wilson. "We did a much better job defending the ball at the point of attack. We did a much better job with our rotations and help and recover defense. I thought that carried over into a great team effort on the offensive end. Morris (Almond) did a nice job of putting the ball into the hoop especially in the second half. But, it was a concerted team effort to execute to put him in a situation where he can be successful."
By scoring 34 points, Almond now has moved into fifth place on the career Rice scoring chart with 1,556 points. Also it was his sixth game this season in which he has scored 30 or more points and 13th in his career.
The Owls were down 51-45 at the 16 minute mark in the second half when they went on a 13-2 run to forge a 58-53 lead that they would not surrender to. In that stretch Almond tallied 7 points, while Aleks Perka scored four of his career-high 8 points and Patrick Britton started the run with a bucket.
ECU battled back to make it 73-70, but Lorenzo Williams, who scored a season-high 20 points, converted two free throws to start a late 6-0 run as Britton made two free throws and Almond two free throws as well to give Rice a 79-70 lead with 30 seconds remaining.
Rice made 12 of 14 free throws in the final 3:35 of the game.
The Pirates (5-16, 0-8) were led in scoring by Courtney Captain's 21 points, while John Fields and Cory Farmer each added 15. ECU shot 56.3 percent from the field, including 9 of 17 from beyond the arc.
Rice (11-10, 5-3) shot the ball equally well by making 52.2 percent for the game. The Owls made 30 of 38 free throws to the Pirates' 11 of 17.
Rice now hosts Southern Miss on Wednesday, Feb. 7 at 7:05 pm in Autry Court.
