Men’s Hoops Travels to Louisiana Tech for Final C-USA Series

HOUSTON — Rice returns to the court for the first time in two weeks when it travels to Ruston, La., to face Louisiana Tech in its final Conference USA series of the year, Feb. 26 & 27. Friday's game is scheduled to tip-off at 6:30 p.m. and be livestreamed by CUSAtv while Saturday's game will tip-off at 1 p.m. and be nationally televised by CBS Sports Network.

Scouting Rice
• Rice enters this weekend's games with a 12-10 record and 6-8 in Conference USA after dropping a pair of games at WKU two weeks ago.
• Sophomore Quincy Olivari leads the Owls with 15.9 points per game, which is seventh in Conference USA. He leads the league in three-point field goal percentage (44.2%) and is second in three-point field goals made per game (3.1). He is also second on the team with 4.8 rebounds per game.
• Sophomore guard Travis Evee is second on the team with 15.0 points per game, which is 10th in the league. He leads C-USA in three-point field goals made per game (3.2) and is second in three-point field goal percentage (42.7%). He also leads the team with 1.2 steals per game.
• Sophomore forward Max Fiedler is averaging nearly a double-double, scoring 11.0 points per game while pulling down 8.8 rebounds per game, good for second in the conference. He leads in field goal percentage, connecting on 69.5% from the field while placing second in Conference USA in double-doubles, (6), seventh in blocks per game, (1.0) and eighth in assists per game (3.9) and assist/turnover ratio (1.6).
• Junior guard Chris Mullins is scoring 11.5 points per game while redshirt sophomore forward Riley Abercrombie is adding 8.1 points per game and is third on the team with 4.3 rebounds per game.
• Rice is averaging 76.4 points per game while allowing 73.3.
• The Owls are connecting on 45.1% from the floor and 37.1% from three while holding their opponents to 44.9% from the field and 34.8% from three.
• Rice is also outrebounding its opponents, 37.6-to-34.3 while leading the league with 10.6 three-pointers per game, which is also fifth in the nation (as of Feb. 24) and placing second with 15.8 assists per game.
• Head coach Scott Pera begins his fourth season leading the Rice men's basketball program. He holds a record of 47-70.

Scouting Louisiana Tech
• Louisiana Tech enters this weekend with a 17-6 record and 10-4 in Conference USA. The Bulldogs have won six of their last seven games and are returning to the court after having last week's series at Middle Tennessee postponed.
• Sophomore forward Isaiah Crawford leads Louisiana Tech with 11.5 points per game and a 39.2% three-point field goal percentage. He is also third on the team with 5.0 rebounds per game.
• Freshman forward Kenneth Lofton, Jr., is second on the team with 10.8 points per game and third in Conference USA with 7.3 rebounds per game.
• Redshirt senior guard Kalob Ledoux is averaging 10.4 points per game and senior guard Amorie Archibald is averaging 10.0 points per game.
• Sophomore guard Cobe Williams is averaging 9.2 points per game and leads the team with 3.1 assists per game.
• Louisiana Tech is averaging 72.0 points per game while allowing just 65.5 points.
• The Bulldogs are connecting on 43.9% from the field and 33.9% from three while placing second in C-USA in both field goal percentage defense (40.6%) and three-point field goal percentage defense (29.9%).
• La Tech is also second in the league in rebounding, pulling down 38.2 boards per game while allowing 35.6.
• Head coach Erik Konkol is in his sixth season at the helm of the Louisiana Tech men's basketball program where he owns a 122-63 (.659) record.

Rice-Louisiana Tech Series History
• Louisiana Tech holds a 16-7 record in the series and has won nine of the last 11 games.
• However, the Owls have won two of the past four meetings.
• Rice is 3-7 in games played in Ruston. The Owls are looking for their first win in Ruston since 2005, having lost the last five meetings.
• Nineteen of the 23 games have come as conference opponents. From 2002-05, the teams met eight times as members of the Western Athletic Conference. The teams have met 10 times since 2014 as members of Conference USA.
• Last year, the Owls fell to La Tech in Ruston, 72-56.

Next Up
• Rice will have a week off before heading to Frisco, Texas for the 2021 Air Force Reserve Conference USA Tournament, Mar. 10-13.

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