Rice University
15-15
.png&width=60&height=60&type=webp)
UTEP
14-17
Owls Elminate UTEP 77-74 from C-USA Championship
3/7/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2007
Box Score | Photo Gallery 
Box Score in PDF Format
Memphis, Tenn. -- Rice's Morris Almond, the Conference USA Player of the Year, lived up to his reputation by scoring 31 points, including the go-ahead monster three-pointer from the left corner, to lead the Rice Owls past the UTEP Miners 77-74 in the first round of the Conference USA Championship presented by Aéropostale at the FedEx Forum.
Almond has now scored 803 points this season, two shy of Ricky Pierce's school record of 805 in 1982. He is now averaging 26.8 points on the year.
"It was a hard fought from beginning to end and I was really overly concerned about our ability to control the tempo in this game," stated Rice head coach Willis Wilson. "Even though we were playing behind, which we've done a lot this year, our guys did not lose their confidence. I thought we did dictate the tempo down the stretch."
The Owls were down by 10 62-52 at 11:47, but UTEP's star guard Stefon Jackson picked up his fourth foul and proceeded to sit the next nine minutes as Rice rallied.
The Owls' Chris Hagan made a floater in the lane and Lawrence Ghoram made two free throws and a power move in the paint to bring Rice to within six (64-58). Almond then scored the Owls' next six points as Rice was only down 68-64 (6:08).
UTEP's Kevin Henderson made one of two at the line and Rice senior point guard Lorenzo Williams answered with a trey from the top of key to make it 69-67 UTEP. Almond, following the media timeout, drained a three with 3:20 remaining to give the Owls a 70-69 lead.
The Owls were up 71-70 following a made free throw by Cory Pflieger and on the ensuing possession UTEP coach Tony Barbee was assessed a technical foul following a travel call on Stefon Jackson who had reentered the game at 3:14. Almond made the second free throw attempt and Chris Hagan then drained two free throws on the same possession as Jackson was whistled for his fifth foul on Hagan's drive to the rim at 1:12.
Henderson then brought the Miners to within two (74-72) after making two free throws at 1:03.
Rice's Charles Belton then scored the Owls' final three points. Belton, a freshman, was wide open on the left wing and calmly drained a 14-footer to give the Owls a 76-72 lead with 32 ticks on the clock.
"I was an option on the play, but I wasn't the first option," said Belton. "Morris (Almond) is the first option. I shoot that shot a lot in practice and I am comfortable inside the arc."
UTEP's Marvin Kilgore then answered with a bucket with 20 seconds left to make it 76-74 in favor of Rice.
After getting the ball inbounds to Almond, the Miners avoided him like he was radioactive, and eventually fouled Belton who made the second of two free throws with 12 seconds to play. The Owls were then able to force two off-balance three-pointers by Henderson and Malik Evans to advance to the quarter-finals.
In addition to scoring a game-high 31 points, Almond had a game-tying high 8 rebounds with Lorenzo Williams, and a game-high three blocks. Williams played a solid point for Rice scoring 15 points and passing out a game-high 8 assists. Cory Pflieger came off the bench to score 9 points and Ghoram came off the bench to tally 8.
Stefon Jackson led UTEP (14-17) with 17 points and seven rebounds before fouling out, while Henderson had 16 points. Maurice Thomas added 12 points for the 10th-seeded Miners.
For the game, Rice (15-15) shot 52 percent from the field including 8-17 from beyond the arc and held UTEP to 40 percent.
Rice now plays UCF on Thursday, March 8 at noon at the FedEx Forum. The game can be seen on CSTV and heard on ESPN 97.5 FM The Ticket.
