Owls, Aggies to Usher in New Year
12/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2008
Texas A&M is riding a seven-game winning streak. Rice also has momentum following a 79-72 road win at UALR. On Wednesday, both teams will look to continue recent success as they meet on New Year's Eve for the second straight year.
Tip-off for Wednesday's game is slated for 3 p.m. and the contest can be heard on ESPN 97.5 The Ticket.
Texas A&M, 11-1, will look to go undefeated for the month of December as the Aggies' last and only loss of the season came against Tulsa (67-56) at the South Padre Invitational on Nov. 28. Texas A&M's current winning streak includes a 67-66 victory over Arizona, an 86-78 overtime victory at Alabama and a 72-61 win over LSU, the Tigers' only loss.
Last week Rice, now 5-7, played No. 4 Oklahoma tough (it was a one-possession game with seven minutes to play) and last Sunday came from behind to beat defending Sun Belt divisional champion UALR in Little Rock.
Rice junior guard Lawrence Ghoram has provided Rice with a spark off the bench and is coming off back-to-back, 16-point scoring games. He established a new season scoring high against Oklahoma and then connected on 7-of-9 field goal attempts at UALR.
Junior guard Cory Pflieger is averaging 12.3 points per game to lead Rice in scoring. Senior Rodney Foster is averaging 11 points and leads the team with 51 assists. Foster is also one of the nation's leading free throw shooters with a .929 clip. At UALR he sank all eight of his free throw attempts in the final 2:20 to second the Owls' first road win.
Freshman forward Lucas Kuipers has started the Owls' last six games and is averaging 9.8 points for the year. He has averaged 12 points an outing as a starter.
Kuipers replaced senior forward Aleks Perka in the Rice starting lineup after Perka hyper-extended his knee during a practice in early December. Perka, who is averaging 6.7 points and leading the team with a 5.4 rebounding average, missed five games before returning to play four minutes off the bench against UALR on Sunday.
Texas A&M is led by senior forward Josh Carter who is averaging 13.9 points and 4.1 rebounds. He is actually shooting better from beyond the three-point line than overall. He leads the Aggies with 28 treys and is shooting .424 from three-point range. His overall field goal percentage is .422.
Carter led Texas A&M with 16 points in last year's 68-61 Aggie win over Rice in College Station.
Both Carter and junior guard Donald Sloan have started all 12 games for the Aggies this season. Sloan is averaging 12 points an outing and leads Texas A&M with 46 assists and 16 steals.
Junior forward Bryan Davis is averaging 11.1 points and a team-leading 6.7 rebounds. Davis is shooting 58.2 percent from the field and has also blocked 18 shots this season.
Following Wednesday's game, Rice closes out nonconference play at Richmond on Saturday. Texas A&M plays host to McNeese State also on Saturday.
