Men’s Hoops Hosts St. Thomas in Seventh Annual Kid’s Day Game

HOUSTON — Rice will play its final game before Christmas when it hosts St. Thomas in the seventh annual Kid's Day game, this Thursday, Dec. 19. Tip-off is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. and the game will be livestreamed by CUSAtv.

Scouting Rice
• Rice enters today's game with a 7-4 record. The Owls are coming off a 96-84 victory over Houston Baptist last Saturday.
• Sophomore Trey Murphy III leads the Owls with 13.3 points per game and 1.4 steals per game while placing fourth in rebounds (5.3).
• Senior Ako Adams is second on the team with 11.8 points per game and 2.4 assists per game. He is also fifth in Conference USA in three-pointers made per game (2.5) and sixth in free throw percentage (88.6%).
• Senior Robert Martin is third on the team with 11.5 points per game and second with 5.9 rebounds per game.
• Sophomore Drew Peterson is fourth on the team in scoring (10.8) and leads the team and is seventh in C-USA with 7.2 rebounds per game. He also leads the team in assists (3.4) and three-point field goal percentage (40.9%).
• Freshman Max Fiedler is third on the team with 5.7 rebounds per game.
• Rice is averaging 73.3 points while allowing 73.6.
• The Owls are connecting on 42.6% from the floor and 34.4% from three while allowing their opponents to connect on 44.3% from the field but just 30.0% from three, which is second in the conference.
• Rice is being outrebounded by its opponents, 38.2-to-37.4 and is second in the conference in three-pointers made per game (9.6).
• Head coach Scott Pera is in his third season leading the Rice men's basketball program. He holds a record of 27-47.

Scouting St. Thomas
• St. Thomas enters Thursday morning's contest with a perfect 6-0 record. The Celts are coming off a 104-53 victory over Howard Payne on Monday.
• Freshman guard Nathan Ghavidel leads the team and is tied for eighth in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference with 14.8 points. He is also second in the league in three-pointers made per game (3.3), third in field goal percentage (55.2%) and fourth in three-point field goal percentage (46.5%).
• Sophomore guard Cameron Gims is second on the team with 13.2 points per game and 5.8 rebounds per game. He also leads the SCAC in field goal percentage (61.9%), steals (2.5), three-point field goal percentage (54.3%) and blocks (2.4) and is third in three-pointers made per game (3.2).
• Senior forward Nathan Thormaehlen is third on the team with 9.5 points per game. He is tied for seventh in the league with 3.2 assists per game and leads the team and is ninth in the SCAC with 7.5 rebounds per game.
• Senior guard Kennard Robinson is tied for third in the league with 2.2 steals per game and tied for fifth in assists per game (3.3).
• St. Thomas is scoring 100.0 points per game while allowing just 68.8 points per game, which are first and second in the SCAC, respectively.
• The Celts are connecting on league-highs of 52.4% from the floor and 43.7% from three while its opponents are connecting on 36.6% from the floor and 32.9% from beyond the arc.
• UST also leads the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in rebounds (45.7), rebounding defense (34.7), blocks (4.0), assists (21.3), steals (10.8) and three-pointers made per game (14.5).
• Head coach Anthony Medina is in his fifth season at the helm of the St. Thomas men's basketball program where he owns a 63-56 (.529) record.

Rice-St. Thomas Series History
• This is the ninth meeting between Rice and St. Thomas.
• Rice holds a 7-1 record in the series and has won the last five meetings.
• The previous eight meetings have all been held at Tudor Fieldhouse.
• The eight games have been decided by an average of 11.6 points per game.
• The teams also met last year in an exhibition game.

School House Mania
• This is the seventh consecutive year that Rice will host its School House Mania game.
• More than 4,000 Houston-area students from local schools will be on hand to cheer on the Owls.
• Rice has won the previous six School House Mania games.
• This will be the third time that St. Thomas will be the opponent.
• Rice also faced the Celts in 2014 and 2015.

Rice vs. Non-Division I
• Since 2000, Rice is 27-2 against non-Division I teams, including having won its last 11.
• The Owls defeated NAIA's Wayland Baptist, 65-40, on Nov. 10.
• Rice's last loss was a 65-54 defeat to Alaska-Anchorage in the 2014 Great Alaska Shootout.

Sponsors
• Rice Athletics thanks EOG Resources and Constellation, an Exelon company, for their financial support of School House Mania.

Next Up
• Rice will have more than a week off before closing its non-conference schedule on Sunday, Dec. 29, when it hosts Sam Houston State. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. CT and the game will be livestreamed by the CUSAtv.

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