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The Rice Thresher
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by Ryan Keedy thresher staff
The men's basketball team's season ended last week when its comeback effort fell just short in a loss to top-seeded Fresno State University in the quarterfinals of the Western Athletic Conference tournament. After the eighth-seeded Owls defeated ninth-seeded University of Nevada 60-44 in the first round "play-in game," Rice hung tough with the 25th-ranked Bulldogs. The Owls narrowed a 12-point halftime deficit to a 51-48 Fresno State advantage before Bulldog guard Demetrius Porter converted a three-point play to put the game out of reach. Fresno State went on to win 60-52. The Bulldogs, 25-6 on the season, received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament after losing to the University of Hawaii in the WAC semifinals. Senior forward Erik Cooper exploded against Nevada, scoring a career- and game-high 26 points on 10-of-19 shooting to propel the Owls to a win. The win avenged Rice's 70-57 loss in Reno in its final regular season game March 3. "Last time we played Nevada, we had an 11-point lead at halftime and they came out and kicked our butts," Cooper said. "So we owed them one." Cooper scored 20 against Fresno State to go out with a bang. He had scored just 10 total points in Rice's final two regular season contests. "The last couple of games I have struggled," Cooper said. "This is the fun part of the year and I just didn't want it to end. Being a senior, it's my last hurrah, so fortunately I got something going early. I think when we play great team defense, we're tough to beat. I think tough defense has been our trademark all year long. We've held a lot of teams under what they normally do. Offensively, we put the shots up and hope they go in." Senior guard Mike Wilks scored 21 points to complement Cooper's 20 against Fresno State, but the Owls came up just short. "It was a difficult, frustrating afternoon," head coach Willis Wilson said. "I couldn't be prouder of our guys. I really felt like for 40 minutes we did everything that we needed to do to win. We dictated the tempo of the game. Our defense was really, really strong, but there were opportunities that we just couldn't take advantage of." Fresno State, on the other hand, took advantage of 41 free throw attempts, compared to Rice's 18. Wilson was charged with a technical foul with 1.3 seconds remaining in the first half after a field goal by Wilks was erased when he was called for a charge. After a made Bulldog free throw, the Owls went to the locker room down by 12 instead of eight. "It was huge," Wilson said of the four-point swing. "When you play possession basketball, every possession counts. What we've talked to our guys about over the last four or five outings is that we need to be four or five possessions better. That was one when you look at it in those terms that is incredibly costly. "[But] we have to give Fresno credit. They made free throws down the stretch and made a couple of baskets that really made the difference." Fresno State made nine more free throws (27) than Rice even attempted. "Night in and night out, we get tough calls and night in and night out we have to work to get some respect," Wilks said. "We try to come out and play above that and not make excuses. "But sometimes it gets hard. It's hard to come out and have it taken away not by the other team but by the referees. We try to play above that."
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