The Owls put together a number of rallies in the second half at home against SMU, but could never quite catch them, falling by a score of 75-68.
Rice jumped out to an early 15-6 lead, but quickly squandered it, and actually trailed by a 35-29 score at the half.
The second half played out in a repetitive manner. Rice cut the lead to 4 with 18:29 left, SMU pushed the lead to 10 at 17:04. Rice cut the lead to 2 at 13:37, SMU pushed it back to 13 at 9:27.
A Tamir Jackson lay-up and-one cut the lead back down to four points with 7:58 remaining, but Rice would never get that close again. As expected, Rice could not stay with SMU's perimeter shooters, especially Robert Nyakundi, who hit seven of the team's 11 three-point field goals.
Arsalan Kazemi paced the Owls with 21 points and 18 rebounds, but committed six turnovers.