Rice Tripped Up By No. 2 Memphis

Paulius Packevicius had 13 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Owls.

Jan. 16, 2008

HOUSTON (AP) - Chris Douglas-Roberts and Doneal Mack both scored 16 points and Joey Dorsey had nine points and 14 rebounds to lead No. 2 Memphis to a 77-50 rout of Rice on Wednesday night.

Antonio Anderson scored 10 points for the Tigers (16-0, 3-0 Conference USA), who have won 35 consecutive regular-season games and 26 in a row in league play.

Memphis won by double digits for the 15th time this season despite going 7-for-31 from 3-point range (23 percent) and barely outrebounding the smaller Owls 42-41. The Tigers won with their full-court defense, which forced the flustered Owls into 29 turnovers.

Paulius Packevicius had 13 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Owls (3-13, 0-3), who have lost six straight.

The Tigers' swarming defense forced three turnovers in the first two minutes. To make matters worse for the Owls, Packevicius, their leading scorer, picked up two quick fouls and went to the bench with 17:54 remaining in the half.

Memphis led 16-4 when Packevicius returned 3 minutes later and Mack's 3-pointer with 12:39 left stretched the lead to 15 points.

But after the Tigers' hot start, the Owls' half-court zone defense started giving the Tigers problems. Rice forward Suleiman Braimoh blocked a shot by Dorsey and Memphis missed 13 of 16 shots after building the big lead.

The Owls also found some holes in the Tigers' defense. Scott Saunders had a dunk and Lawrence Ghoram hit a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 25-16. Two minutes later, Bryan Beasley's driving layup pulled Rice within 28-20.

The Tigers finished the half with a 12-3 burst, started when Dorsey had a steal, a rebound basket and a breakaway dunk in a 20-second span. Memphis scored 21 points off 19 Rice turnovers in the half and held the Owls without a field goal over the final 4:46.

Memphis pushed the lead over 20 points in the opening minutes of the second half by forcing more turnovers that turned into easy baskets. Derrick Rose threw an alley-oop pass to Robert Dozier for a dunk with 14:47 left to put the Tigers up 52-28.

The Tigers kept adding to their lead despite missing 19 of their first 22 3-point attempts. Memphis missed nine consecutive 3-point tries before Mack connected with 11:26 left to put Memphis up 60-35.

Memphis coach John Calipari took out his starters with 4:58 left and the Tigers leading 70-42.