HOUSTON, TEXAS (February 24, 2009) Rice begins the final two weeks of the regular season Wednesday when the Owls take on UCF in Orlando. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. CST and the game will be broadcast by ESPN 97.5 the Ticket in Houston.
The Owls are coming off their second, three-point loss in as many road games,falling at SMU 69-66 last Saturday. Rice also dropped a 91-88 overtime decision at EastCarolina the previous week.
Rice has now lost its last three to drop to 8-18 overall and 3-9 in Conference USA play.
If the conference season ended today, Rice would face UCF in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament in a meeting of the No. 6 and No. 11 seeds. But a lot can happen in the final two weeks of the regular season before the C-USA tournament which is set for March 11-14 in Memphis, Tenn.
The Knights, 16-6 and 6-6, have lost junior forward Tony Davis who last week was suspended for the remainder of the season. In a 77-52 win over Rice earlier in the year, Davis scored 17 points, going 7-for-11 from the field, and pulled down 12 rebounds. He started 20 of the 22 games in which he appeared this season and was averaging 9.8 points and a team-leading 6.8 rebounds.
While UCF has lost Davis, the Knights return the nation’s fourth-leading scorer in Jermaine Taylor. The senior is averaging 25.3 points per game after scoring 35 points in last week’s 77-72 loss at Houston. Prior to the UH game, Taylor averaged 36.5 points and 6.5 rebounds in a pair of games en route to the previous week’s Conference USA Player of the Week award.
Led by freshman A.J. Rompza’s 5.04 assists per game (third in C-USA), UCF leads Conference USA in assists, averaging 15.85 per game (412 total).
While Rice has seen improved play over the past month, the Owls have struggled on the boards. Over the last six games, Rice has a -5.2 rebounding margin. The Owls will look for a better performance on the glass this time around against the Knights who have a +2.8 rebounding margin to rank third in C-USA.
UCF outrebounded Rice 39-24 back in January. The Knights scored 12, second-chance points to the Owls’ one while grabbing 11 offensive boards.
League opponents are averaging 13 offensive rebounds against Rice this season.
Rice will benefit from the return of senior forward Aleks Perka who missed two games with a sprained ankle before coming off the bench to score 10 points on 5-for-6 shooting against SMU. He also had four rebounds and two assists in the game.
Rodney Foster averages 12 points a game to lead Rice in scoring. He leads Conference USA in both three-point shooting (.443) and free throw percentage (.870).
Following Wednesday’s game at UCF, Rice returns home to play host to Houston Saturday in Tudor Fieldhouse. Tip-off for Saturday’s game is 3 p.m.
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