Fresno State Athletics
Men's Basketball Faces Tough Test Against Rice
1/21/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 21, 2004
- Game Notes (Section I)
- Game Notes (Section II)
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Game #16: Rice (12-4, 4-1) at Fresno State (9-6, 5-1)
- Location: Fresno, Calif.; Save Mart Center (16,116)
- Date/Time: Thursday, Jan. 22; 7:07 p.m.
- TV: None
- Radio: KMJ AM 580 (Bill Woodward, Dave Severns)
- Spanish Radio: KOOR AM 790 (Jess Gonzales, Fermin Chavez)
Live game audio and stats available on gobulldogs.com
FRESNO, Calif. - After experiencing its first loss of the conference season last week, Fresno State returns home Thursday to take on conference contender Rice. The Bulldogs are 9-6 (5-1 WAC) after having their seven-game winning streak snapped Saturday with a 72-58 loss at UTEP. The Owls, considered by some experts as the favorite to win the league title, is 12-4 (4-1) following Tuesday's 80-40 throttling of SMU. Tonight is Rice's third game in six days.
Fresno State leads the all-time series 7-2, although Rice did win the last game, which was the 2002-03 finale. The Bulldogs are a perfect 5-0 all-time against the Owls in Fresno. That includes last year's thriller at Selland Arena, in which Fresno State won on a Damon Jackson jumper with four seconds to go.
A matchup to watch on Thursday night is at point guard, which should be one of the best of the year. On one side, there's Shantay Legans, who has been everything Fresno State fans had hoped for, and then some. He is second on the team with a 12.3 scoring average and leads the WAC at 5.8 assists per game. On the other, there's Rashid Smith, who doesn't score as much because he hasn't needed to on a team with such accomplished offensive players. However, Smith does average 5.73 assists per game, ranking just behind Legans.
Tickets for Thursday's game are available at the Save Mart Center Box Office, by going online to www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 559-485-TIXS.
