Rice University
9-21, 4-12
Tulsa
22-9, 12-4
Rice Drops 60-50 Decision to Tulsa
3/7/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 7, 2009
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HOUSTON - After trailing by one point at halftime, Tulsa scored the second period's first eight points and went on to beat Rice 60-50 in the final game of the regular season.
In an interesting twist, Rice could face its last two regular-season opponents during the first two rounds of next week's Conference USA Tournament in Memphis, Tenn. Rice, now 9-21 and 4-12 in league play, will be the No. 10 seed and will take on Marshall Wednesday at 12 noon in the FedEx Forum. The winner takes on Tulsa in quarterfinal play on Thursday at noon.
Tulsa had already locked down the No. 2 seed before playing Rice Saturday. The Golden Hurricane improved to 22-9 and 12-4 in league play with the win.
Rice led 25-24 at the break as Emerson Herndon putback a Rodney Foster miss at the buzzer. The play marked the the fourth lead change of a game which also featured nine ties.
Rice struggled shooting against Tulsa, making just 32 percent of its shots. The Owls missed their first eight shots of the second period.
Tulsa's Ben Uzoh, who scored 11 points and had four rebounds, gave the Golden Hurricane the lead for good when he grabbed a defensive layup and scored a layup on the other end. After Bishop Wheatley scored on a jumper, Uzoh again went inside for a basketball to put Tulsa up 30-25. Uzoh's offensive rebound on TU's next possession set up a Justin Hurtt basket to cap the 8-0 run.
The Golden Hurricane would stretch the lead to as many as 10, 36-26 with 15 minutes to play. Later, Rice senior Aleks Perka closed out a stretch in which the Owls outscored TU 13-5 with a 15-foot jumper to cut the Golden Hurricane's lead to 41-39 with 9:33 to play.
The two teams traded baskets before a Jerome Jordan dunk stretched Tulsa's lead to 47-41 and after two Rice possessions without scoring, Jordan again scored inside to give TU a 49-41 lead with 6:04 to play.
Jordan led Tulsa with 15 points. Ray Reese added 10 points for the Golden Hurricane.
Foster entered the game as the only Owl to be scoring in double figures but he missed his first 10 shots and went 2-for-13 from the field. In addition to seven points for the game, he also had five assists and two steals while playing 39 minutes.
Cory Pflieger led Rice with 10 points. Herndon set new career standards with seven points and six rebounds.
Seniors Foster, Perka and Zac Coffelt were all recognized prior to the game.
