The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 29, 1988 Page: 18 of 24
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14 Friday. January 29,1988 THRESHER Sports
Owls outmuscled by ugly, grunting behemoths
by Wade Chow
"One of the steps we need to take
to be a top-notch ball club is to be
able to keep our poise and our
mental toughness when a team is
having its best game against us.
That's part of the learning proc-
ess." -Coach Scott Thompson
Unfortunately for the fighting Owls,
the Baylor Bears came out last Satur-
day night with perhaps their best game
of the season. And uncharacteristi-
Scott Thompson feels his team needs to develop mental toughness on the court —L. Cowsar
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cally, the Owls were unable to keep
themselves in the game until the final
buzzer.
"Baylor came out as sharp in their
game as any team we've played so
far," said Coach Thompson. "I think
Baylor had their best game of the
year." Proof of Thompson's state-
ment can be found in the game's sta-
tistics: the Bears shot an astonishing
58.4% from the field to Rice's 41.9%
FG%. More importantly, Rice was
unable to stop the ferocious play of
center Darryl Middleton, who
torched the Owls for 38 points on 13
fo 16 shooting.
With the help of David Willie (23
points) and Ron Robertson (16
points), Rice managed to stay neck
and neck until the 9:00 mark of the 1 st
half. With the score tied 22-22, how-
ever, Baylor began to pull away, tak-
ing off on a 12 to 4 run. The half ended
with the score 44-35, Baylor.
The second half extended the Owls'
woes. B ay lor scored the first 6 points
of the half and ballooned the lead to 25
points with 6:49 to go in the game (74-
49). From there, Rice could only chip
the lead to 16, and the final score read
84-68, Bears.
Coach Thompson felt the game did
not accurately reflect the true nature
of the team: "We played very well the
first half. In the second half, they
poured it on, and wedidnotreactvery
well. It was very uncharacteristic of
our team not to hang in there until the
very end. In all the games we've been
in thus far, we've had a chance to win
until the very end."
His goal for the team is to play tough,
smart basketball; to be competitive
enough to surprise some teams: "We
want to be in every game. Our goal is
to hang in there. You never know
what can happen. The ball can
bounce our way." Thompson added:
"We must continue to keep coming at
people and catch them off guard. We
have to improve many things until we
are the type of team we want to be."
Coach Thompson wished to thank
those students who had traveled to
Baylor and Texas A&M to support
the team. "I was very pleased to see
many students at those games. It was
a pleasant surprise for me."
The loyal fans poured out to watch
the Owls take on the highly regarded
Arkansas Razorbacks. Until midway
through the first half, Rice played the
Pigs tight, primarily upon the
extraordinary 3-point shooting of
David Willie. Finding the range, Wil-
lie had five first half three point shots
and seven overall. He finished the
half with 22 of Rice's 31 points. His
game-high 28 points also included a
ferocious dunk on the fast break. The
game was 23-21 at one point, but from
there things got rapidly worse. The
extraordinary thing was that the Owls
never quite seemed to be out of the
game, despite going down by double
digits before the half was over.
Unfortunately, the game began to
slip away from the Owls in the second
half. The Owls seemed extremely
tentative on their shots, passing up
many open shots. Ironically, the shots
they did take seemed ill-chosen.
Furthermore, David Willie barely
touched the ball in the second half,
scoring only 6 points before fouling
out.
The Razorbacks were just too much.
Physically, they were much larger
than our Owls, with 6'11" center
Andrew Lang (21 points) swatting
quite a few of our shots as well as
jamming the ball down inside.
Though the Owls had a run with 1:39
left in the game, including a bizarre
four-pointplay by Ron Robertson, the
Razorbacks had already built a com-
manding lead of 20 points.
The final score was 80 to 61, accu-
rately representing the dominance of
the Razorbacks, especially in inside
play. Both blowouts were products of
Rice inferiority inside the paint.
The Owls hit the road again this
weekend, squaring off against the
Lamar Cardinals on Saturday in the
Montaigne Center in Beaumont
Lamar always fields a tough team,
and are strong inside. James Gulley,
their center, should give the Owls a
tough time inside. Next Wednesday,
the Owls face the Cougars of Houston
in Hofheinz Pavilion.
lii
Rioe fans had to settle for a Willie jam, rather than a victory
—L.Cowsar
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Wucker, Michele. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 17, Ed. 1 Friday, January 29, 1988, newspaper, January 29, 1988; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245683/m1/18/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.