Rice Owls defeat HBU Huskies 78-66 inside Sharp Gym

Posted: November 30, 2011 - 11:34 p.m. CST.

HOUSTON, TX (Sharp Gym) -- The Rice Owls took a trip down the Southwest Freeway to play the Houston Baptist University Huskies Wednesday night. Despite not having junior forward Arsalan Kazemi (out with a back injury) for the game, the Owls earned a solid 78-66 "road" victory inside ice cold Sharp Gym in front of an announced crowd of 1041 fans.

The Owls (5-2) won the battle of the boards 48-36. Big man Omar Oraby led five different Owls who pulled down at least six rebounds in the game. Oraby grabbed a game-high 12 boards to go along with 11 points. Forward Lucas Kuipers and freshman guard Dylan Ennis (doing his best Rajon Rondo imitation) each pulled down eight rebounds while Tamir Jackson and Ahmad Ibrahim each snared six boards.

Ibrahim was the star of the first half Wednesday night. Ibrahim came off the bench and scored 16 points (6 of 9 from the field including 4 of 5 from three-point range) in just 10 minutes. Ibrahim was so hot Huskies fans moaned each time he got his hands on the ball in the first half.

"I can really feel it. I felt like I was in high school," Ibrahim said after the game. "My confidence is up."

Ibrahim erased a Huskies' two point lead (18-16) with 13 points in four minutes. Ibrahim's scoring burst helped give the Owls a 31-23 lead. The Owls led the Huskies 37-30 at halftime.

The Huskies (2-5) shot 44.8% (13 for 29) from the field; but, 1 for 6 shooting from the foul line hurt the Huskies in the opening 20 minutes.

Huskies' guard Tyler Russell scored with a floater early in the second half to narrow the Owls' lead to 39-34; however, a three-point basket by Ibrahim capped off a 14-6 Owls' run to stretch the lead to 53-40 at the 11:53 mark of the second half.

The Huskies did not get closer than eight points the rest of the ball game. Tamir Jackson sank 5 of 7 free throws in the final two minutes to put the game away. Jackson finished the game with a team-high 20 points.

Jackson accepts his leadership role and is very willing to do whatever it takes to help the Owls win.

"If we need to score, I'll do it," Jackson said. "If we need somebody to get an assist, I'll do that. If we need somebody to get a rebound or play defense, I'll do that. Whatever we need for the team to win, I'll do it."

Owls head coach Ben Braun admitted he didn't know what to expect from his team without Arsalan Kazemi playing Wednesday night.

"I didn't really know what to expect in terms of where our rebounding would come from," Coach Braun said. "Or where our go-to baskets were going to come from. Obviously, it's a good sign that our team could respond the way that we did."

The Owls snapped a two-game losing streak with the win.

Tyler Russell scored a team-high 20 points for the Huskies. Art Bernardi added 15 points and seven rebounds while Marcus Davis scored 13 points and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds for the Huskies.