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Oregon St. (2-0) at Rice (0-2) / Tudor Fieldhouse, Houston, Texas / 8 PM CST (6 PM PST) / American Sports Network / Stream (Subscription) / KEJO 1240 AM / KEX 1190 AM
Oregon State hits the road for the first time this season, starting a 2 game road trip that concludes Saturday in Santa Barbara with a visit to Houston, Texas, where the Beavers will take on the Rice Owls from Conference USA. It's the return trip for Rice's visit to Gill last season, a game Oregon State won 67-54 last November. Malcolm Duvivier and Jarmal Reid both scored 17 points, and Langston Morris-Walker posted his first career double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Rice went on to an 8-10 C-USA campaign, and a 12-20 season.
This is only the 4th meeting ever between the Beavers and the Owls. Rice won at Gill by 1 point back in 1956, and the only other time the teams crossed paths before last year was in the first round of the 1977 Far West Classic, when Oregon State prevailed 75-58.
The Beavers were balanced and played with a variety of paces Tuesday night, and the result was a 20 point, 93-73 win over Iona. A half dozen Beavers were in double digits, lead by freshman Drew Eubanks's 19, 17 of which came in the second half. Morris-Walker was right behind, with 17 points.
It's the home opener for the Owls, who lost both games in a trip to the Bay Area last weekend. Cal clobbered them 97-65 last Friday night, and then San Francisco thrashed them again, 80-54 on Monday.
The Owls bombed up 22 3s against the Dons, but only made 4 of them. Expect Rice to try for a poor man's version of what Iona attempted Tuesday night, with Oregon State needing to exercise their size edge into points, and rebounds, once again.
Rice has only 2 players over 6'7", their starting and backup centers, neither of which are particularly productive scorers, and the Owls use a 4 guard offense, except when they use 5 guards.
It should be another big night for Eubanks.
The game is on the "American Sports Network", but good luck finding that in any area provider's normal channel lineup. Comcast Northwest has picked up the game, and will carry it in their Oregon markets/systems.
The game will also be streamed by riceowls.com, but you have to subscribe ($9.95) to receive it.
Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com