Rice University
8-19, 1-12CUSA
Marshall
21-7, 9-4CUSA
Marshall Defeats Owls, 77-54
2/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Feb. 24, 2010
Marshall shot better than 50 percent from the field in the second half, pulling away and beating Rice 77-54 Wednesday in Tudor Fieldhouse.
Rice, which fell to 8-19 and 1-2 struggled shooting the ball. The Owls made just 25 percent of their first-half field goal attempts and on the night converted just 10-of-28 free throws (35.7 percent).
Marshall, which improved to 21-7 and 9-4 in league play, never trailed in the contest.
Capped by a three-pointer by 7-0 forward Hassan Whiteside, the Thundering Herd utilized an 8-2 run to extend an early lead out to 23-12 with 5:41 to play in the first half.
Whiteside scored 19 points and finished with 17 rebounds, one shy of the Rice opponent record. He also had four blocks en route to establishing a new Conference USA season standard. Currently with 146 blocks for the year, Whiteside surpassed the previous mark of 143 set by Jerome Jordan of Tulsa during the 2007-08 season.
After trailing 32-21 at halftime, Rice failed to close the gap any further than eight points when Tamir Jackson drove and scored a layup with 16:30 to play, cutting the Thundering Herd's lead to 35-27. But Whiteside answered Jackson's bucket with a jumper in the paint at the other end of the floor, cueing an 11-2 rally that culminated in a dunk by the rookie to give the Herd a 48-29 lead.
Marshall senior guard Chris Lutz scored a game-high 20 points. Lutz had an early pair of three-pointers to help Marshall grab an early lead and finished the night 6-for-10 from behind the arc. The Thundering Herd was 10-for-25 from three-point range on the night.
Rice was led by senior guard Lawrence Ghoram who was 7-for-9 from the field and finished with a team-high 16 points. Sophomore forward Lucas Kuipers scored 14 points and had eight rebounds for the Owls.
The contest marked the 1000th career game as a collegiate coach for Rice's Ben Braun, who is in his 32nd collegiate season as a head coach.
The week doesn't get any easier for Rice as the Owls travel to UTEP on Saturday. The Miners are 21-5, have an 11-game winning streak and lead the Conference USA standings.
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
