2007 C-USA Basketball Tournament Recap: #7 Rice 53 - #2 UCF 51

Third Time Is The Charm For Almond and Owls

The Rice Owls posted their second comeback win in the Conference USA tournament, coming from behind in the second half to defeat the second-seeded Golden Knights. Morris Almond’s three with 2.8 seconds to play in the contest produced the 53-51 final. Rice improves to 16-15 on the season while the Knights fall to 22-9 on the year.

UCF started the contest with six unanswered points, as it received two baskets down low from Kenrick Zandervan. Conference USA Player of the Year Morris Almond, who finished the day with 30 points, was able to get things going for Rice with a three from the corner that put the Owls on a 5-0 run of their own.

Dave Noel hit the bottom of the net from the right corner to stop the Owls run. Mike O’Donnell then anticipated the Owls’ pass and converted his steal into a fast break lay-up. Jermaine Taylor would knock down a three the next time down the court to put UCF up by seven.

UCF countered Rice’s fixation of getting the ball to Almond by picking up another steal on a pass to Almond and pushing the ball up the floor to O’Donnell to pick up an uncontested jumper.

Rice stayed within striking distance by capitalizing on its free throw attempts, as Almond and Patrick Britton knocked down both of their chances at the line. Rice was 8-of-12 from the charity stripe in the first half while UCF was 2-of-3.

Rice would fail to take advantage of its opportunities after Paulius Packevicius missed two from the line and Morris Almond was rejected on a lay-up by Lavell Payne who put the Knights up by ten with a bucket on the other end of the court.

Rice pushed the Knights and trimmed the lead down to six. Rice’s Chris Hagan stole the ball for a wide-open fast break basket but forgot the ball when he went up for the easy lay in to hand the ball back over to the Knights.

Rice was able to end a 10-minute span of only two field goals with two steals and two lay-ups by Rodney Foster and Morris Almond at the other end to pull their Owls within two.

The Golden Knights would go into the locker room up by four at the half when they once led the Owls by ten. Almond tallied 11 points for the Owls in the first stanza and Taylor led the Knights with five, as four Knights had four points heading into the second half.

Rice cut the lead down to one early in the second half, but on two different occasions the Knights would wipe out Rice’s one-point deficit with a three from Josh Peppers and O’Donnell.

UCF would push the lead to seven after a Josh Peppers’ basket on one series. On the next possession, he would score by utilizing a spin move for an easy lay-up.

The second half continued to be the Almond and Peppers show, as Almond grabbed his own rebound and made a incredible bank shot while under triple coverage to pull his Owls within 44-39 at the 7:55 mark.

After some sloppy play by both teams, Almond nailed a three to tie the game at 44, but Josh Peppers, who is a Memphis native, answered with a three of his own to put UCF in front at 47-44.

Rice fought back and took its first lead of the day when Lorenzo Williams connected on a jump shot with just under three minutes to go in regulation.

Rice extended its lead to three after Almond hit two free throws down the stretch.

After a scramble for the ball under the UCF basket, Peppers prevailed with the ball and a basket, but he was unable to finish off the three-point play to tie the game.

Almond was fouled away from the basket, but was unable to covert the one and one. Noel went down the court and was fouled, as he knocked down two free throws to put UCF up one.

A Lorenzo Williams’ jumper that did not fall and a UCF rebound gave the Knights the ball and the lead with a minute to go.

A shot by O’Donnell as the shot clock ran down fell short and gave Rice a chance to take to the lead. There was a slight differential between the game clock and shot clock so the Owls wouldn’t be able to hold the ball for the last shot.

As expected, Morris Almond would get the ball and he would sink a fade away three to end the Knights’ hopes of advancing.

House of Payne
Lavell Payne picked up his tenth rebound of the game with just under 15 minutes to play in the contest. He concluded the game with 14 points.

All-Time Series
UCF is now 3-2 all-time against the Owls after the loss today.

What’s next for the Knights?
UCF was hoping to produce a strong finish in the Conference USA Tourney so that it could at least place itself on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament. Following their first round exit of their league tournament, the Golden Knights in all likelihood will be headed to the NIT.