Arsalan Kazemi finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, his fourth straight double-double, and Rice held on to defeat Texas A&M-International 73-66 Monday night.
Trey Stanton added 16 points and nine rebounds and Lucas Kuipers had 15 points for the Owls (8-15), who finally pulled away from their Division II opponent in the second half.
Luis Gomez hit eight 3-pointers and led the Dust Devils (9-13) with 27 points.
Two straight 3s by Gomez pulled A&M-International to within 69-63 with 44 seconds left, but Rice ended the threat by hitting four straight free throws.
After falling behind 15-7 early, the Owls rallied to take a 28-27 halftime advantage. They started the second half with a 10-3 run but A&M-International stayed within single digits until Kuipers' 3 with 8:06 to play put Rice ahead 52-41. The Owls pushed their lead to as many as 13.
