Golden Hurricane Finishes Road Trip at Rice

GAME #28: Tulsa (11-16, 5-9 AAC) at Rice (12-15, 3-11 AAC)
Date/Time:	Saturday • February 21, 2025 • 1:00 p.m. (CT)
Site:	Tudor Fieldhouse (5,208) • Houston, Texas
Coaches:	Tulsa – Eric Konkol (Wisconsin-Eau Claire, '00), 3rd Season Rice – Rob Lanier (St. Bonaventure '90), 1st Season
TV:	ESPN+ \| Matt Pedersen (PxP) and Austyn Iven (Analyst) Olivia Guzman (Reporter)
Radio:	Big Country 99.5 FM / Varsity Sports App (Bruce Howard and JR Rollo)
Live Stats:	Live Stats
Series:	38th Meeting \| Tulsa leads 30-7
Twitter:	@TUMBasketball \| @TulsaHurricane
Instagram:	TulsaMBasketball
Notes:	Tulsa Notes \| Rice Notes \| The American Notes

TULSA, Okla. –– The University of Tulsa men's basketball team looks to bounce back from a disappointing loss as the Golden Hurricane wraps up a two-game road trip at Rice on Saturday afternoon.

Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. (CT) and will air on ESPN+ Matt Pedersen and Austyn Iven on the call and Olivia Guzman as the reporter. Fans can also catch the contest on Big Country 99.5 FM and the Varsity Network app. Bruce Howard and JR Rollo will bring fans the action.

The Hurricane (11-16, 5-9 The American) and Owls (12-15, 3-11 The American) are each coming off Wednesday losses. TU trailed wire-to-wire in a 63-44 loss at North Texas, the lowest scoring output of the season. Rice allowed UAB to make four free throws without any time coming off the clock and then missed a pair of free throws to tie or win the game with a second left in a 90-89 loss.

Rice won the season's earlier meeting 70-64 on New Year's Day in the Donald W. Reynolds Center, snapping a 17-game winning streak for TU in the series. Overall, the Hurricane leads 30-7 and Tulsa is 11-5 in Tudor Fieldhouse. TU has won seven straight on the road in the series and hasn't finished on the short end of the score at Rice since Jan. 15, 2005.

Graduate guard Dwon Odom tallied five more assists in Wednesday's loss, giving him a conference-leading 144 on the year. He is three assists short of tying Reggie Shields (1989-90) for 10^th on Tulsa's single season assist leaders. Keaston Willis has connected on 76 3-pointers this season, leaving him two short of Tony Heard (1999-00), Justin Hurtt (2009-10) and Pat Birt (2015-16), who are all tied for 10^th in a single season at TU.

Eighty has been a magic number for Tulsa this season. The Hurricane is 9-1 this season when scoring 80 or more in a game. The lone loss was a triple overtime game at Missouri State early in the campaign. Unsurprisingly, things bode well for the Hurricane when Tulsa limits turnovers and shares the ball well on field goals. TU is 6-2 this season when turning it over fewer than 10 times and 7-2 when amassing at least 15 assists.

Since their Win at Tulsa and subsequent victory over Charlotte to open conference play, the Rice Owls have dropped 11 of 12 in conference play and are on a four-game skid. The Owls trail the Hurricane by two games in the conference standings as teams enter the final stretch of the regular season. Trae Broadnax leads two Owls who average double figures in scoring, putting up 12.8 points per game next to Caden Powell's 10.0. Those two are also the team's leaders on the glass, but in reverse with Powell leading the way pulling down 7.0 rebounds per contest and Broadnax grabbing 5.4.

The Hurricane has a midweek bye before returning to action in the Donald W. Reynolds Center next Saturday for a rematch with Tulane. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. and will air on ESPNU.

Golden Hurricane Finishes Road Trip at Rice

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Players Mentioned

Dwon Odom

Keaston Willis