GAME 17 – at Rice (10-6, 3-2)
Date: January 20 – 7 p.m.
Location: Houston, Texas
TV: CUSA.tv
Audio – ODU Sports Radio Network
Live Stats – click here
Social Media – Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

GAME 18 – at North Texas (8-6, 1-1)
Date: January 22 – 6 p.m.
Location: Denton, Texas
TV: ESPN+
Audio – ODU Sports Radio Network
Live Stats – click here
Social Media – Facebook | Twitter | Instagram


NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion men's basketball team heads to the Lone Star state for a pair of games against Conference USA west division opponents facing Rice on Thursday night and North Texas on Saturday night.   Thursday's game will be on CUSA.tv, while the Saturday encounter will be on ESPN+.
 
The Monarchs are 7-9 overall and 2-1 in Conference USA play after splitting games last weekend with UTSA (83-51) and falling in overtime to UTEP (78-70).  Austin Trice had 19 points and 20 rebounds in the loss to UTEP after recording 19 points against UTSA. His 20 rebounds were two off the Chartway Arena record and three from the Division I era school mark.
 
Rice enters the weekend 10-6 overall and 3-2 in conference play.  The Owls split their last games losing at Western Kentucky (80-66) and defeating Marshall (87-77).  Travis Evee and Carl Pierre lead the team in scoring averaging 15.3 points each, while Chris Mullins and Quincy Olivari are just off the double figures mark averaging 9.9 and 9.1 points respectively.  Max Fiedler leads the Owls in rebounding at 8.8 per contest.
 
As a team, Rice is averaging 77.3 points per game, while allowing 74.4.  From the field, Rice is hitting .466 and .390 from 3-point range, while opponents are hitting .431 from the field and .301 from 3-point range.  The Owls are outrebounding opponents by almost two per contest (37.2 to 35.4).
 
The all-time series between these teams has ODU leading 11-2 after a 61-58 win on Jan. 16, 2021.
 
The Monarchs finish the weekend in Denton, Texas facing the Mean Green.  North Texas is off to an 11-4 start overall and 4-1 in conference play before a Thursday night matchup with Charlotte. 

The Mean Green average 66.7 points per game and allow 56.7.  Tylor Perry leads them in scoring at 14.7 points per game and shares the lead in assists with 41.  Thomas Bell is the other double figure scorer at 11.7 points per game, leads the team in rebounding at 6.8 per game and is tied with Perry for assists with 41.
 
All-time with North Texas, ODU leads the series 9-2 with North Texas winning 61-55 in the Conference USA Tournament last year.