Rice beats UH 79-71

Owls take out Cougars 79-71

HOUSTON –  

Jarelle Reischel scored a game-high 16 points and Tamir Jackson scored 13 and had five assists as Rice came back from a 13-point, first-half deficit to beat Houston 79-71 Wednesday in Hofheinz Pavilion.

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With their third straight win over Houston, the Owls improved to 14-11 and 5-5. UH is now 11-12 and 3-7.

The victory marked the third time since the mid-1980s that the Owls had comeback from a double-digit deficit as Houston raced out to a 13-0 lead before the Owls? first basket.

Jackson broke the ice with a three-pointer at the 12:02 mark and started an 8-0 run which included a trey by Connor Frizzelle and a shot in the paint by Arsalan Kazemi.

Rice missed its first 14 shots of the game before converting on eight of its next 10 attempts from the field. The Owls grabbed their first lead on a three-pointer by Jarelle Reischel with 3:22 to play in the half.

Reischel?s three gave Rice a 26-25 lead and was sandwiched between treys by Jackson and Dylan Ennis as the Owls stretched the margin to six, 29-25.

The Owls? biggest lead of the half was eight. Reischel converted a three-point play and after a UH miss, Lucas Kuipers drained another three-pointer to put the Owls up 35-27 with 1:33 to play.

Houston would rally to score the final seven points of the half to make it a one-point game at the break. J.J. Thompson capped the run with a three-pointer at the end of the half.

Rice led 35-34 at the break.

The second half featured eight lead changes with the Owls taking the lead for good on a pair of free throws by Omar Oraby with 5:23 remaining which put the Owls up 65-64.

The free throws began a 9-0 Rice run which was highlighted by a break-away basket by Jackson. Kazemi stole the ball in the backcourt, and in transition, Ennis fed the junior guard for a layin that put the Owls up 68-64. Omar Oraby then had back-to-back baskets inside as the lead ballooned to eight, 72-64 with 2:35 to play.

Frizzelle also scored 13 points for the Owls while Ennis scored 10, had six assists and four rebounds.

After the slow shooting start, Rice shot 58 percent in the second half and an even 50 percent for the game. The game marked the first time this season Rice had been outrebounded and won a game. UH outrebounded the Owls 36-30.

The Cougars were led y Jonathon Simmons who scored 16 points while Joseph Young came off the bench to score 13.