Rice University
-316, 06 CUSA
Southern Miss
-109, 23 CUSA
Men's Basketball Downed By Southern Miss, 71-53
1/26/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 26, 2008
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Sai'Quon Stone scored a career-high 17 points and Jeremy Wise also finished with 17, including an 11-for-11 performance at the free throw line, as Southern Mississippi defeated Rice 71-53 in Reed Green Coliseum Saturday.
With the win, Southern Miss improved to 10-9 and 2-3 in Conference USA games. Rice is now 3-16 and 0-6 in league play. The Owls return to action Feb. 2nd when they play host to Tulane at the Leonard E. Merrell Center in Katy. Tip-off for that game is 7 p.m.
Rice played Saturday without senior forward Paulius Packevicius who sustained a knee injury during Friday's practice in Houston. Packevicious was in uniform for the game but remained on the bench. He entered the weekend leading the Owls both in scoring and rebounding, averaging 11.1 points and 9.8 boards.
In Packevicius' absence, Lawrence Ghoram led Rice with 14 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Rice trailed by three at halftime but had come back to take a 32-30 lead with 17:39 to play. But after two free throws by USM's Andre Stephens had tied the game, the Golden Eagles regained the lead for good, taking advantage of Rice turnovers.
It was Stone who sparked the Golden Eagles in the second half. He was fouled scoring a layup following a steal by R.L. Horton. Stone's ensuing free throw gave Southern Miss a 35-32 lead with 16:20 to play. Ghoram answered with a jumper for the Owls and Rice looked to regain the lead after a USM turnover. But a steal and upcourt pass by Courtney Beasley led to a Stone dunk and the USM lead was quickly back to three.
Wise made two free throws as the Golden Eagles' stretched the lead to 39-34. as Rice could not convert a pair of field goal attempts and turned the ball over on its next two possessions. Southern Miss would later go on a 9-2 run to extend the margin to double figures.
Rice was able to build as large as an eight-point lead in the first half, capped by a 12-foot jumper by Ghoram that gave the Owls a 23-15 lead with 5:11 to play in the first half. Rodney Foster's pullup jumper answered a pair of free throws by the Golden Eagles before USM scored the final 11 points of the period to lead 28-25 at the break.
Over the final four minutes of the first half, Rice went stone cold. The Owls got off just two field goal attempts in the final minutes and also missed on five free throw attempts. The Owls were 6-of-14 from the line on the night.
Stone tied the game at 25-25 with 1:44 to play in the half on a baseline jumper. Horton's three-pointer at the 1:13 mark gave the Golden Eagles a 28-25 lead.
