Rice in First Place

[50's PONY]

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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports

Jan. 29, 2004, 12:51AM


Rice tops Hawaii 76-73 for share of first place
By NEIL HOHLFELD
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

With the Super Bowl in town, there's an influx of pickpockets hoping to prey on out-of-town visitors.

The Rice Owls got into the pilfering act Wednesday night at Autry Court. They stole the ball a season-high 16 times from Hawaii and beat the Rainbow Warriors 76-73.

With the win, the Owls (14-5, 6-2) went into a three-way tie for first place in the Western Athletic Conference with Hawaii (14-4, 6-2) and Fresno State (10-7, 6-2). Rice was led by Jason McKrieth, who had 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting and five steals.

McKrieth had the final steal and likely the most important, picking off a pass from Hawaii point guard Logan Lee with the Owls ahead 72-68 and 1:15 remaining.

"I was just trying to be aggressive," McKrieth said. "A few of them (steals) I anticipated because I recognized Hawaii's offense, but a lot of it was being aggressive."

Even after McKrieth's last steal, Rice wasn't home free. Center Yamar Diene hit two free throws after an intentional foul with 18.4 seconds left to make it 74-68, but he missed two with 17.1 seconds remaining.

Hawaii's Michael Kuebler, who led all scorers with 24 points, nailed a 3-pointer with 7.1 seconds left to pull the Warriors within 74-71. Owls point guard Rashid Smith, who was 8-of-8 from the line, nailed down the win with two free throws with 4.6 seconds left.

"That was a hard-fought game," Rice coach Willis Wilson said. "You look at games this time of year, and teams like to bump and grind and play with a lot of intensity. I really liked our defense. That's one of the things about this year; when our defense is good, our offensive tends to take care of itself."

The upside of the Rice defense was that the Owls forced 24 Hawaii turnovers that led to 35 points. But the Rainbow Warriors shot a season-high 62.5 percent from the field. Kuebler was 10-of-16 overall and 6-of-7 on shots inside the 3-point line.

The Owls snapped Hawaii's six-game WAC winning streak despite missing leading scorer Michael Harris for most of the second half. Harris had 18 points but played only two of the final 15 minutes due to cramps.

"He had leg cramps, stomach cramps, all kind of cramps," Wilson said. "It's a credit to our guys to play the way they did without him. He's a guy we count for rebounds and points, especially late in the game. To pick it up with him out was critical."

In the first half, a defensive switch by Wilson led to steals by Rice on four straight trips down the court by Hawaii. The Owls turned the steals into eight points, turning a 23-16 deficit into a 24-23 lead.

During the opening half, the Owls had 11 steals and scored 25 points off 13 Hawaii turnovers. At halftime, Rice had a 43-34 lead.

"You have to give them credit for playing good defense," Hawaii coach Riley Wallace said. "They played harder than I expected on defense. We took them for granted, and our timing was off.

"Our guys came back in the second half, but defensively we were pitiful, especially on the post defense. Harris and McKrieth had their big nights tonight and carried their ballclub."

The Owls were ahead 58-47 and appeared to be on their way to an easy win when Harris left the game for the first time with 15:17 left. Harris tried to come back with 12:42 left but he lasted only one minute before limping off again.

Led by Kuebler and Julian Sensley, who added 20 points, Hawaii went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 60-56 with 9:55 left. Twice the Warriors cut the Rice to lead to two points, but the Owls secured the win by making 13 of 18 free throws over the final 5:18.

One of the misses was by McKrieth, who had made a school record 37 straight free throws before missing with 8:49 left. It was about the only thing the junior forward didn't do right Wednesday. His rash of steals and 5-of-6 shooting in the first half set the tone.

With the three-team logjam at the top of the conference and Nevada one game behind the leaders at 5-3, Riley believes the second half of the WAC season will be one to remember.

"A lot of people can win this thing," Riley said. "It's whoever holds court at home and picks up the road wins. I'm thinking 13-5 might do it."

Often, teams talk about stealing a win on the road. Wednesday night, the Owls stole one -- literally -- at Autry Court by flicking the ball away from Hawaii 16 times.


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HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section: Sports
This article is: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/sports/2376486

[Sam I Am]

Guess Rice has shown that you can have high academic standards and still win in the WAC. Their attendance and gym is worse than ours. No more alibis for SMU. Just do it.

[ponydawg]

But Rice can't be in first place, they don't allow JUCO players......I don't understand, this would mean that Stallion's theory is not correct. Just kidding Stallion, I do agree that we need to get JUCO's in here so we can keep up with other schools, but I also believe that coaching plays a BIG roll in the outcome of the games, especially in the WAC and soon to be CUSA. Rice has done it with Baseball and is looking like they could do it with Basketball.

[Hoop Fan]

well, maybe Willis Wilson just figured out how to coach in 2004 after years of being completely owned by Mike Dement.

[Stallion]

yes and let's not forget that WILLIS WILSON in addition to being dominated by Dement has had LESS success over a LONGER period of time that DEMENT so he would have had his [deleted] fired long ago before this year even began. So once again your argument to fire Dement now because of this years success by Willis Wilson doesn't work.

[ponydawg]

Not sure who you are arguing with but:
I agree we need Jucos to be on a level playing field, with that being said, I think Dement has done all he can do here, he practically said it himself in that article when he said he didn't know if the kids just don't listen and he was not sure if he wanted to come back if they weren't.
My point with Rice is that it can be done. They did it with Baseball (which means nothing to us) and they are getting it done with Basketball. Granted more times then not it isn't going to work for you....but I would take their season right now anyday of the week.
And Wilson has only had 2 more seasons than Dement....so "his [deleted]" would have not been fired "that" long ago.

<small>[ 01-29-2004, 02:36 PM: Message edited by: ponydawg ]</small>

[50's PONY]

Ponydawg, I posted this article as a matter of interest but it should be noted, even though I have loved Rice winning the NCAA, that they did so with a NUMBER of jucos on the baseball team..

[ponydawg]

I agree, I am thrilled about Rice doing so well! I grew up going to a ton of their games and had good friends on their Baseball team. That being said, I didn't know they had Jucos on the baseball team, should have known though b/c my friends who played there....well he aint as smart as I be. I think that would bother me if I went to Rice, why would they let Jucos play Baseball and not Basketball. I think if you are going to let one in, you might as well take as many as you can get for all sports.

[Glaucidius]

The fact that Rice allows some JUCOs in baseball only has more to do with the fact that you're only allowed 11.8 scholarships in baseball. Virtually all of Rice's baseball JUCOs were identified and recruited by Coach Graham out of high school and have excellent academic records. Graham literally uses the JUCO as something akin to a farm team, sending them there for a year and thus saving a scholarship and affording them an opportunity of playing all the time, instead of having to ride the bench as a freshman at Rice. A number of our better in-the-field players have gone that route, some of them All-Americans, such as Chris Kolkhorst. Last year, Graham had eight high school valedictorians on his 25-man roster. (When I learned that, I also learned that, unbeknownst to me, nowadays a high school can designate more than one, sometimes several valedictorians. Wasn't that way in my day.) In any case, the '03 National Champion Rice baseball team had eight of them. I understand, though cannot confirm, that of those eight, three went the JUCO route. Again, it's a rather unique situation based on the small number of baseball 'ships available.