Rice loses 97-89 to Houston in thriller

POSTED: November 20, 2019 -- 10:27 a.m. CST

HOUSTON, TX (Tudor Fieldhouse) -- The Rice Owls led the Houston Cougars for nearly 31 minutes of action Tuesday night. However, a five minute drought in the closing moments resulted in a 97-89 win for Houston.

Rice Head Coach Scott Pera was proud of his team's effort; but, the days of moral victories in Rice Basketball are over.

"I was really proud of our effort. I thought it was a heck of a college basketball game. But make no mistake. There's no moral victories in the program anymore. We're out here to try to win. We felt coming into the game that we had a chance to win. We played winning basketball for about 34 minutes. To (Houston's) credit, they played better down the stretch. They deserved to win and all the credit goes to them."

Rice jumped to an 11-2 lead early as Trey Murphy III, 6'8" sophomore guard, went to work early with Rice's first 8 points of the ball game. Trey knocked down two three-point shots; and, he proved to be a matchup problem for Houston's big lineup which resulted in Houston's decision to go small 3 minutes into the ball game.

Murphy rolled his left ankle on a baseline drive and limped to the bench with the Owls' leading 13-6 with 13:44 left in the first half.

Rice (4-2) led by 9 points (21-12) before Houston went on a 7-0 run to trim the Owls' lead to 21-19. Then, Rice senior Robert Martin heated up and scored 12 points during a 13-0 blitz for a 34-19 Rice lead. Martin converted 1 three-point play before draining 3 straight three-point shots.

Rice led Houston 39-32 at halftime. Trey Murphy III capped off Rice's scoring with a sweet drive and two-hand slam dunk. Murphy finished the first half with 11 points on 3 for 5 field goal shooting, 2 for 4 on threes.

Houston opened the second half with a 13-5 run to lead 45-44. Neither team led by more than 2 points the next six minutes; then, Rice sophomore Drew Peterson scored 11 consecutive points for a 75-68 Rice lead.

Rice's offense carved up Houston's man-to-man defense which resulted in numerous wide open looks for Peterson; and, Peterson drained 3 three-pointers during his personal 11-0 run.

Because Houston could not keep up with Rice with man-to-man defense, Houston switched to a 3-2 zone defense.

"We made a coach (Houston's Kelvin Sampson) who never plays zone. Play zone for the first time in I don't know how long," Peterson said. "It just shows how good we're executing and establishing good chemistry with the team; and, going to the Bahamas, I think that will really treat us well."

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Rice led 77-68 with 5:50 left in the ball game; but, Houston went on a 21-1 to lead 89-78 with 1:01 remaining.

During the big run, Rice missed 5 field goals and 5 of six foul shots. Prior to missing the 5 of 6 free throws, Rice was 16 for 18 from the foul line.

However, the Owls did not throw in the towel and continued attacking and staying aggressive in the final minute.

"Thirty-five minutes. I mean we were up. We had the lead," Martin said after the game. "They went on their runs; but, we went on ours, too. We were able to play together and fight through adversity.

"The last minute and a half I was really proud of how we kept going. We were down by eight, nine with 50 seconds to go. A lot of teams. That team last year even the team my sophomore year we probably wouldn't have kept fouling; kept attacking. I'm proud, especially as a senior, with the young guys, we just kept fighting to the end. This loss shows more about who we can be rather than the result tonight."

Peterson agreed with Martin's comments and added this year's Rice team has a different mentality and a winning mindset.

"Trey was in foul trouble most of the entire game," Peterson said. "But, we had guys step up when we needed to."

After losing an exhibition game to St. Edwards and opening the season with a 91-43 road loss to Arkansas, Peterson said there were two directions the team could have gone.

"There two directions we could have gone: we could have gone into the hole and loss four of the next 5; but, we really turned it around. We had a meeting; and, we got our stuff together. The result is close games like this with really good teams."

Martin scored a team-high 20 points for the Owls. Peterson scored 16. Chris Mullins scored 12 and senior guard Ako Adams and Trey Murphy III each scored 11 points. Trey was 0 for 3 from the floor in the second half. His ankle injury and foul trouble disrupted his rhythm.

"I think the biggest difference is they (Houston) respected us this year," Martin said. "Last year, they were talking. You could tell they didn't really care too much. This year, you heard guys were talking at the free throw line. They definitely respected us. They had a little bit of fear. We put a bit of fear in them; so, that's something we're just going to build off of.

Martin continued, "Not too many people in this city; in this stadium expected us to win that game. And, I think that gave us a little more confidence. We're definitely gonna take it. Practice hard tomorrow (Wednesday) and take it to the Bahamas."

NEXT:

Rice's next game is Friday, November 22, against Milwaukee, in Nassau, Bahamas as part of the Islands of the Bahamas Showcase. Tip is set for 1 p.m., on FloHoops. Click this link to get ESPN+.

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