Arena #147: Tudor Fieldhouse - Houston vs. Rice

For our last stop in Texas, it was off to Houston for a crosstown rivalry game between the Houston Cougars and Rice Owls from Arena #147, Tudor Fieldhouse, on the campus of Rice University.  This game is a classic intra-city matchup between a public university (Houston) and a private university (Rice).  In this case, Houston has been the significantly more relevant team on the hardwood for the last few years and was certainly the favorite in this game coming off a Sweet 16 appearance in the prior year.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure what to expect from this game because even though Rice came into the matchup with only 1 loss, I haven’t heard anything about Rice being any good at basketball in a long time.  Tudor Fieldhouse is well designed to hold a crowd of around 5,000, which on this day consisted of probably 70% Houston fans who were certainly boisterous when the Cougars were rolling.  However, the Owls came out hot early and continued to be hot throughout the first 30+ minutes of the game with a barrage of 3s and some solid defense.  It definitely looked like an upset was in the offing, however, the Cougars would have none of it down the stretch getting some timely buckets and defensive stops in pulling out a 97-89 victory.

Main entrance to Tudor Fieldhouse

Inside Tudor Fieldhouse pregame 

Opening tip between the Owls and Cougars

Houston going in for a first half dunk