Owls Face 5-1 Arizona Wednesday
11/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 30, 2010
Back from a pair of single possession road losses, Rice will look to stay undefeated at home when the Owls play host to Pac-10 member Arizona Wednesday. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. in Tudor Fieldhouse and the game will be broadcast nationally by CBS College Sports. ESPN 97.5 will carry the local radio broadcast of the game.
Rice is 3-3 on the year following consecutive three-point losses on the road. North Texas defeated the Owls 68-65 before No. 20 Texas held on for a 62-59 win against Rice last Saturday. Rice is 3-0 at home but by far, Wednesday's game will be the biggest home-court test so far this season for the Owls.
Arizona travels to Houston with a 5-1 record. The Wildcats opened the season by playing four straight home games before going 1-1 at the finals of the iBN Sports Las Vegas Invitational. In Las Vegas, UA beat Santa Clara 82-59 before losing to Kansas, 87-79. Earlier in the season, Rice lost a one-point game at Santa Clara.
The Wildcats are led by forward Derrick Williams who is averaging 21 points and 7.3 rebounds. He is tied for 27th nationally in scoring.
Arizona ranks among the Top 10 in the nation in both scoring margin (24.2 ppg) and rebounding margin (11.7 rpg). The Wildcats are also shooting 50.3 percent form the field which ranks 12th nationally.
UA beat Rice 66-49 in Tucson, Ariz., and in that game the Owls' Arsalan Kazemi picked up his first career double-double.
Through six games this season, Kazemi has four double-doubles. He is averaging 14.2 points and 11.3 rebounds for Rice. In addition to leading Conference USA in rebounding, he ranks seventh in the league in shooting with a .553 field goal percentage (26-of-47). He has already been to the free throw line 42 times where he is shooting 78.6 percent (33-of-42).
Sophomore guard Tamir Jackson is also scoring in double figures for the year, averaging 13 points per game. Cory Pflieger, who returns for his senior season, is coming off his first double-figure scoring game of the season. Pfleiger went 4-for-6 from three-point range to finish with 12 points at Texas. He leads Rice with 13 assists and defensively has drawn five player control fouls.
As a team, Rice turned the ball over a season-low six times last week at Texas. After a 20-turnover game at Santa Clara, the Owls have had single-digit turnovers in each of their last three games. Rice has lowered its turnovers per-game average to 12.2 and has a +1.8 turnover margin.
Following Wednesday's game against Arizona, the Owls continue a three-game home stand Saturday when they play host to Lamar. Tip-off Saturday is set for 2 p.m.
