GAME NOTES: The Rice Owls and the Washington State Cougars will be in action on Friday as they clash at the Alaska Airlines Center as part of the Great Alaska Shootout.

Rice has not had a great start to the season and its woes continued in the first round of this event as it was handed a 77-71 overtime loss by Mercer on Thursday. The Owls are now 1-3 overall, with their lone win coming at home against Prairie View A&M.

Washington State fell into the loss column in the first round as well. However, the Cougars were not as competitive in their loss, falling in a 71-43 final against UC Santa Barbara. The loss was the third in four games for them this season.

Rice won the only previous meeting between these two squads with a 54-59 triumph back in 2003. The winner of this one will take on the victor between Alaska Anchorage and Missouri State, with the losers of each contest also going head-to-head.

Andrew Drone made a layup with 1:33 to play, giving Rice a 61-59 lead. However, the Owls let up an offensive rebound, which turned into a layup for Mercer's Darious Moten late in the game to necessitate overtime. Rice never led in the extra session, making just 1-of-5 shots from the field during the period. They only made 36.8 percent of their shots from the floor in the game overall, with Seth Gearhart tallying 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting to lead the way.

A lack of offensive production has been an issue early on for Rice, which is netting just 64.5 points per game on 39.2 percent shooting. The Owls have managed to do a decent job defensively, however, with their first three opponents averaging 69.3 points per tilt on 44.1 percent shooting. Marcus Jackson (13.2 ppg) leads the team in scoring, but he has been erratic with his shooting (.333 FG percentage). Gearhart (13 ppg) and Bishop Mency (10.2 ppg) help out in the scoring department as well, with Mency doing so off the bench.

A disastrous first half sank Washington State against UCSB. The Cougars only made 3-of-33 shots from the floor in the first 20 minutes, while shooting a paltry 22.8 percent from the field for the game. That included a 4-of-21 effort from 3-point range. Brett Boese tallied 13 points off the bench as the leading scorer, but the bulk of those baskets came with the game well out of reach.

Aside from an 80-point effort in their lone win against Idaho State, the Cougars have scored no more than 54 points in any game this season, and they were the worst scoring team in the Pac-12 last season at just 62.4 points per game. DaVonte Lacy usually produces, averaging 17.3 points per game entering this tournament, but he was held to only three points on 1-of-8 shooting by UCSB. Josh Hawkinson was doing it all entering this event (15.3 ppg, 12 rpg, 2.7 bpg). He had 13 rebounds against UCSB, but only three points, ending his streak of double-doubles at two.

Clearly Washington State's offensive woes are troubling. It is unlikely the Cougars will be able to solve them in one day, so expect Rice to find a way to win.