East Carolina plays Rice following Felton's 21-point performance
East Carolina Pirates (14-12, 7-6 AAC) at Rice Owls (10-16, 4-9 AAC)
Houston; Saturday, 2 p.m. EST
BOTTOM LINE: East Carolina faces the Rice Owls after RJ Felton scored 21 points in East Carolina's 81-67 win over the Tulane Green Wave.
The Owls have gone 5-8 at home. Rice ranks ninth in the AAC in rebounding with 36.2 rebounds. Max Fiedler leads the Owls with 9.4 boards.
The Pirates are 7-6 against AAC opponents. East Carolina is 2-2 in games decided by less than 4 points.
Rice is shooting 44.6% from the field this season, 1.4 percentage points higher than the 43.2% East Carolina allows to opponents. East Carolina averages 6.7 made 3-pointers per game this season, 1.9 fewer made shots on average than the 8.6 per game Rice allows.
The matchup Saturday is the first meeting this season between the two teams in conference play.
TOP PERFORMERS: Travis Evee is scoring 15.8 points per game and averaging 3.3 rebounds for the Owls. Mekhi Mason is averaging 15.9 points and 3.7 rebounds over the last 10 games for Rice.
Brandon Johnson is shooting 36.2% from beyond the arc with 2.1 made 3-pointers per game for the Pirates, while averaging 14 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.7 steals. Felton is averaging 16.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and two steals over the past 10 games for East Carolina.
LAST 10 GAMES: Owls: 4-6, averaging 75.1 points, 34.7 rebounds, 15.0 assists, 5.2 steals and 3.4 blocks per game while shooting 46.0% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 77.6 points per game.
Pirates: 5-5, averaging 65.3 points, 34.6 rebounds, 12.0 assists, 8.5 steals and 3.3 blocks per game while shooting 39.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 65.3 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
