East Carolina hosts Rice following Smith's 24-point game

Rice Owls (8-12, 2-5 AAC) at East Carolina Pirates (6-14, 1-6 AAC)

Greenville, North Carolina; Wednesday, 7 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Rice visits East Carolina after Jalen Smith scored 24 points in Rice's 87-81 loss to the Tulsa Golden Hurricane.

The Pirates have gone 5-6 at home. East Carolina is 4-5 when it wins the turnover battle and averages 12.1 turnovers per game.

The Owls are 2-5 in conference games. Rice ranks sixth in the AAC with 10.5 offensive rebounds per game led by Jimmy Oladokun Jr. averaging 2.5.

East Carolina is shooting 40.4% from the field this season, 3.6 percentage points lower than the 44.0% Rice allows to opponents. Rice averages 74.1 points per game, 2.1 fewer than the 76.2 East Carolina allows to opponents.

The Pirates and Owls meet Wednesday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Giovanni Emejuru is averaging 13.6 points, 9.9 rebounds and two blocks for the Pirates. Tybo Bailey is averaging 1.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

Trae Broadnax is scoring 15.3 points per game with 4.8 rebounds and 2.9 assists for the Owls. Nick Anderson is averaging 13.1 points and 3.9 rebounds while shooting 39.3% over the past 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Pirates: 3-7, averaging 68.4 points, 31.4 rebounds, 11.1 assists, 6.5 steals and 5.3 blocks per game while shooting 40.5% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 75.4 points per game.

Owls: 4-6, averaging 72.5 points, 31.3 rebounds, 11.7 assists, 7.0 steals and 3.8 blocks per game while shooting 42.4% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.7 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.