Playing without three key players, Rice was competitive, but the Owls again lost the turnover battle and didn’t have an answer for UAB’s Tavin Lovan and his mid-range jumper.
Facing the West Division’s first-place team, Rice stayed within reach of UAB but playing shorthanded proved too difficult to overcome. Despite a solid effort, the Owls couldn’t keep pace with the Blazers and lost 86-74, falling Saturday to the home team for the second straight night at Bartow Arena in Birmingham, Ala.
“We dealt with some injuries last night and had a 20-hour turnaround to play this team on the road again and so we had to make adjustments,” Owls coach Scott Pera said. “Our players gave me everything they had. UAB is a tough team. We just didn’t have enough weapons tonight to get the win.”
For this Conference USA matchup, the Owls were without guards Chris Mullins (turf toe) and Cavit Ege Havsa (left ankle sprain), who both left Friday’s game with injuries. The Owls’ second-leading scorer guard Travis Evee did not make the trip to Birmingham, Ala., because of COVID-19 protocol.
In their absence Quincy Olivari elevated his game even more than he has all season. Olivari scored 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting before fouling out with 3:33 left in the game. The 6-foot-3 sophomore guard added four rebounds and four assists.
Riley Abercrombie, Max Fiedler and Payton Moore added 15, 12 and nine points respectively for the Owls, who committed 19 turnovers to the Blazers’ five.
Moore and Jake Lieppert took turns playing the point. Fiedler had 10 rebounds and both steals for the Owls, who this weekend were playing outside of Texas for the first time this season.
Cameron Sheffield added eight points for the Owls (10-6, 4-4), who despite outrebounding the Blazers 39-29 now have their first three-game losing streak of the season.
UAB (12-2, 5-1), which leads the series 16-2, came into the weekend allowing the fewest points per game (56.4) in the NCAA, just ahead of second-place Houston.
But the Owls managed to put up 142 points over two games on the Blazers. Rice lost to UAB 78-68 on Friday.
“We’ve been able to score, that’s something we can do pretty well,” Pera said. “And to do it without Chris, Havsa and Evee is even more amazing, but our kids just really handled it well.
“We had balanced scoring. For the most part we took the right shots and we gave ourselves a chance. We just turned it over too much.”
Rice made 24 of 52 field-goal attempts (46.2 percent), but committed 14 more turnovers than UAB. In the first half the Owls turned the ball over 11 times in falling behind 50-39 at the break. UAB’s first turnover didn’t occur until more than 16 minutes into the game.
“Without three of your best ball handlers against a good team that’s prone to happen,” Pera said. “Nineteen turnovers is too many. They have veteran guards who run their stuff very well and they were a low-turnover team coming in. That was the game right there.”
UAB led for all but five minutes of the game, but Rice wouldn’t go away. The Owls strung together a 16-2 run in the first half to go ahead 23-20. The Owls led by as many as four points. A jumper by Fiedler gave the Owls a 29-25 advantage at the 7:19 mark of the opening half.
With 15:40 to play in the game, Rice got to within 53-52 on a jumper from Fiedler. But UAB slowly pulled away.
The turnover differential was huge, but another deciding factor in the game was the play of Lovan, who poured in 32 points without attempting a 3-point shot. UAB’s offense went through the 6-4 junior guard.
Lovan was 13 of 22 from the field and excelled in a number of categories. He posted 11 rebounds, five assists and collected two of the Blazers’ 11 steals. Tyreek Scott-Grayson pitched in with 18 points for the Blazers.
“He’s a tough matchup for us. His mid-range game is one of the best in the country,” Pera said. “His ability to float and make difficult shots in the paint is not something a lot of kids do these days. So he’s got a little niche carved out. He’s just a terrific player, he really hurt us.”
Richard Dean reported from Houston.
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