Rice squeaks past Florida Atlantic 90-85

Feb 18, 2016, 10:55 pm

HOUSTON -- Marcus Evans scored 29 points on 10-for-17 shooting from the field, and Egor Koulechov added 19 as Rice beat Florida Atlantic 90-85 on Thursday night.

Andrew Drone scored the go-ahead layup for Rice (10-16, 5-8 Conference USA) to make it 86-84 with 57 second to play. After an immediate Rice timeout, Jeantal Cylla missed a 3 with 34 seconds remaining. Evans then made two free throws with 24 seconds left to seal the win.

Evans entered the game third in scoring in the conference at 19.8 points per game. Drone finished with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Florida Atlantic shot 30 for 56 from field (53.6 percent) against Rice's 32 for 61 (52.5 percent).

Marquan Botley scored 19 points on 5-for-5 shooting from 3-point range, and Ronald Delph added 17 points on 8-for-10 shooting for Florida Atlantic (7-20, 5-9).

Florida Atlantic has dropped four of its last five games.