Rice University Athletics
Rice University
16-16
Houston
18-14
Rice Falls In Semifinals To Houston
3/9/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 9, 2007
Box Score in PDF Format
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -Robert McKiver scored 25 points and grabbed six rebounds Friday night as Houston defeated crosstown rival Rice 77-62 in the semifinals of the Conference USA tournament.
The Cougars (18-14) built the lead to as much as 22 in the second half behind 3-point shooting. Houston connected on 6-of-12 from long-range after the break and will play fifth-ranked Memphis, a 71-49 winner over Tulane, in the title game Saturday.
Oliver Lafayette finished with 17 points, Marcus Malone had 13, Jahmar Thorpe 10 and Dion Dowell added 11 for Houston.
"Our thoughts are pretty simple. I thought Houston did a great job with its game plan," said Rice head coach Willis Wilson. "They did a nice job controlling the tempo. It was much slower pace than we really wanted to play at, but that's part of basketball. The team that really dictates the tempo ultimately at the end has the opportunity to take advantage. I think the second thing is we looked like a team that ran out of gas a little bit today. Houston was more physical than we were and we just did not have the energy to respond to the physical play."
But it was Malone's defense on Rice guard, Morris Almond, the conference's player of the year, that was most impressive. Almond, who led the league in scoring and was second in the nation averaging 26.9 points per game, was held to 11 points for Rice (16-16).
Almond finished the season with 844 points in 32 games for a 26.4 scoring average, which is a new C-USA record and one that ranks second in Rice history behind Ricky Pierce's 26.8 ppg in 1982. He also concluded his Rice career fourth in school history with 1,825 career points.
"He (Marcus Malone) did a good job of denying me the ball," commented Almond. "I can't take anything away from him along with the rest of the Houston Cougars. It was one of those nights. I guess it looked how it was. That is how I saw it out there. It was his face looking at my face every time I was on offense."
"Morris Almond keeps a straight face on the court,"said Malone. "He always keeps his poise and is a very classy player. We stayed up until 3 a.m. looking at film on him and just looking at his movements and what made him comfortable on the court."
Lorenzo Williams led seventh-seeded Rice with 16 points, while Patrick Britton scored 13.
Houston led 29-23 at the break behind 12 points from McKiver.
Almond had trouble getting open in the first half as Houston had Malone chasing him all over the floor. Almond managed only three points in the half, missing four of five shots from the field.
The rest of the Cougars swarmed over Rice, forcing a handful of early turnovers.
But the Owls still shot better than 50 percent and tied the game at 20 when Williams scored on a layup with 5:55 left in the half. Then Rice went cold, failing to score for more than 3 minutes, and Houston scored seven straight points for a 29-23 halftime lead.
Almond hit his first shot of the second half, a 3-pointer 16 seconds into the period, but his offensive woes continued.
Houston just kept pushing its lead to double figures when Lafayette hit a pair of free throws with 12:44 left. Houston led by as much as 56-39 on back-to-back 3-pointers from Dowell and McKiver with 7:25 left, moving the Cougars to the championship game.
