By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The Rice Owls started fast and held off a comeback attempt in the second half Wednesday night, winning 89-73 in American Conference men’s basketball and handing the UTSA Roadrunners their 10th straight loss.

Despite a spirited rally in the second half, the Roadrunners couldn’t overcome the Owls and extended their losing streak to the second longest in school history.

The 2022-23 UTSA squad, under the direction of former coach Steve Henson, holds the dubious record with 11 straight losses.

Trae Broadnax scored 20 points to pace the Owls, who have won two straight games on the road in the American. Rice hit 16 three pointers, including 10 in the first half.

Baboucarr Njie, with his best game in weeks, scored 23 for the Roadrunners. Dorian Hayes added 18 and Austin Nunez produced 16 points and five rebounds.

Records

Rice 2-3, 8-10
UTSA 0-5, 4-13

Coming up

UTSA at Memphis, Sunday, 5 p.m.

First half

The Rice Owls shot 62 percent from the field and knocked down 10 three pointers in the first half, taking a 51-40 lead on UTSA into the break at intermission.

Nick Anderson and Trae Broadnax scored 12 each for the Owls and Jalen Smith added 11. Combined, the three of them hit eight shots from behind the arc, over the Roadrunners zone defense.

The Owls led for the entire 20 minutes in the opening period and once kicked the lead up to 19 points. Cam Carroll’s three with 3:41 made it 46-27.

In response, the Roadrunners outscored the Owls 13-5 the rest of the way, with Njie scoring four of the points, including a drive to the rim for a layup at the buzzer.

Notable

After the Owls were beaten by 49 points at Tulsa in their conference opener on New Years Eve, they have fared much better, first returning home to lose by six to the Memphis Tigers. After that, they traveled to Kansas and beat the Wichita State Shockers by two and then returned home and played Charlotte to the wire, falling by one.