Owls Clash With Pirates Saturday at 1 p.m.

Rice looks to snap four-game losing streak

HOUSTON, TEXAS (January 30, 2009) Rice wraps up a week-long home stand and will look to snap a four-game losing streak Saturday as the Owls take on East Carolina in Tudor Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon. Tip-off for Saturday’s game is 1 p.m. and will be broadcast locally by ESPN 97.5 The Ticket.

Rice saw its losing streak go to four games as Tulane’s Kevin Sims beat the final horn with a driving layup to give the Green Wave a 61-59 win over the Owls Wednesday.

Rice is now 6-14 and 1-5 in Conference USA play

East Carolina, 10-9 and 2-4, has lost eight of its last 10 games. The Pirates won on the road at SMU a week ago, 80-74, but is coming off an 85-64 homecourt loss to Memphis earlier this week.

Rice senior guard Rodney Foster scored 11 points, had six assists and four rebounds before being sidelined with a sprained ankle with 13 minutes to play Wednesday against Tulane. Foster’s status for Saturday will be a game-time decision.

Foster is the only Rice player to be scoring in double figures. He is averaging 10.2 points per game. His 4.05 assists per game (81 total) ranks seventh in Conference USA.

Rice senior forward moved back into a starting role for the first time since early December and responded with a career-high equaling 15 points against Tulane earlier in the week. Perka made his first seven field goal attempts.

Three of East Carolina’s starters are averaging double figures, led by senior guard Sam Hinnant’s 15.2 points per game. Senior James Legan averages 12.8 oints while sophomore point guard Brock Young is averaging 10.9 points and leads Conference USA with an 8.16 assist average (155 total).

The other ECU player to be scoring in double figures is freshman Darrius Morrow who averages 10.2 points and a team-leading 7.3 rebounds. Morrow has played in all 19 games and averages 27 minutes of playing time while coming off the bench in all but three games.

Legan is shooting 45.7 percent from three-point range (58-127) to lead Conference USA. As a team, ECU averages 8.37 treys per game which is also tops in C-USA.

Rice made five-of-9 three-pointers in Wednesday’s game to raise its three-point percentage to .368.

Rice ranks second in Conference USA in three-point percentage and fourth in the league in three-pointers made at 6.45 an outing.

While Rice is among the league leaders in three-point shooting, the team struggles with a .411 overall shooting percentage which ranks 11th in the league.