Koulechov's 26 points leads Rice rout of North Texas, 101-79 (Jan 14, 2017)

HOUSTON (AP) Egor Koulechov scored 26 points and grabbed 15 rebounds as Rice used a big second-half to stop a two-game skid with a 101-79 rout of North Texas Saturday afternoon.

The Owls had lost two straight and three of their last four after falling in overtime to Alabama-Birmingham a week ago.

Koulechov, from Volgograd, Russia, entered the game as the second-leading scorer in Conference USA at just under 20 points per game and leads the nation in 3-point field goal percentage (54.4 percent). He hit 3 of 4 from deep against the Mean Green.

Marcus Evans and Marcus Jackson scored 19 and 17 points, respectively, for Rice (12-6, 2-3).

North Texas (6-11, 0-5) led by two at intermission, 39-37, led by seven after a Jeremy Combs layup with 17:08 to play, 48-41. Rice then scored 10 unanswered points to take the lead.

J-Mychal Reese scored 18 points for North Texas.