Box Score HOUSTON, Texas - The UALR men's basketball team (6-5) suffered its fourth-straight road loss on Thursday night, as Rice (5-4) shot 51.1 percent from the floor en route to a 65-55 victory at Tudor Fieldhouse. Sophomore forward Arsalan Kasemi was one of three players to score in double figures for Rice, leading the Owls with a 15-point, nine-rebound effort off 6-of-8 shooting.
UALR trailed by just three at the half, 31-28, but Rice was able to pull away in the second half as the Trojans went 10:23 between field goals. The Trojans shot just 35.2 percent from the field on the night, including an 8-of-26 effort in the second half (30.8 percent). UALR sank a season-high 10 three pointers and shot 43.5 percent from three-point range against the Owls (10-of-23), but made just 29.0 percent of its shots inside the three-point arc (9-of-31).
Tamir Jackson totaled 12 points, six rebounds and a game-high eight assists for the Owls, while Connor Frizzelle chipped in 13 points off the bench. The Owls played to a 30-to-16 advantage on points in the paint, led by Kazemi's team-high 15 points.
Seniors Solomon Bozeman and Alex Garcia-Mendoza paced the Trojans with 13 points apiece in the loss, with Bozeman going 4-of-8 from three-point range and Garcia-Mendoza grabbing a team-high six rebounds. UALR's reserves were outscored 28-to-14 by the Owls, with senior Matt Mouzy accounting for nine of UALR's points off the bench by making 3-of-7 three pointers.
UALR came out firing on Thursday night, connecting on 10-of-18 from the field at the start of the game while knocking down six of its first nine three-point attempts. A three pointer by Bozeman gave the Trojans a 26-18 lead with 7:49 left in the half, but UALR scored just two points over the final 7:48 as the Trojans closed out the half by going 1-for-10 from the field.
The Owls capitalized on UALR's offensive struggles with a 13-2 run to close out the half and take a three-point lead into the locker room. Rice shot 52.0 percent from the field over the first 20 minutes, and was led offensively by 10 points from Jackson.
"I thought we had really good energy and really shared the ball well early on. We had seven assists in the first eight minutes, but we were not able to sustain that crisp ball movement," said UALR head coach Steve Shields. "We have to become a more mentally-tough team and not drop our heads when we encounter some adversity. We can't give up 51 percent from the field and get beat by two on the glass and expect to win."
The Trojans trailed by three early in the second half, 33-30, after a basket by junior Eric Kibi with 18:59 on the clock, but it would mark UALR's last field goal for a stretch of 10:23. The Trojans would not make another field goal until junior D'Andre Williams delivered a putback with 8:36 left in the game. Williams' putback made it a 47-35 ballgame, but UALR was unable to cut its deficit to single digits until the final minute of the game.
UALR finished with 12 assists against a season-low seven turnovers, but could not overcome its shooting deficiencies. In addition to its .352 field goal percentage, UALR converted just 7-of-18 at the foul line (38.9 percent).
The Trojans return to action next week (Dec. 21-23) when they travel to Las Vegas, Nev. to take on Akron, Oral Roberts and Stetson in the Las Vegas Holiday Hoops Classic.
