Conference USA Tournament Opening Round: Conference USA Player of the Year Morris Almond keyed an eight-point comeback to lead No. 7 Rice past No. 10 UTEP 77-74. Almond had 31 points and eight rebounds. Lorenzo Williams added 15 points and eight assists for the Owls. No. 6 Southern Miss won the battle of the SMUs, defeating No. 11 Southern Methodist 59-52 behind Jarvis Hill’s 16 points and nine rebounds.
No. 8 Marshall led by 14 at halftime but barely survived against No. 9 UAB, beating Mike Davis’ boys 53-52. Lawrence Kinnard had 17 points and nine rebounds for UAB, and Mark Dorris led Marshall with 15 points.
Calvin Walls scored a career-high 15 points, helping the No. 5 Tulsa Golden Hurricanes defeat No. 12 East Carolina. Tulsa used a 15-2 run in the first half to build a 31-15 lead. [3/07/07]
