The Marshall men’s basketball season has officially come to an end after losing to Rice in the first round of the Conference USA tournament 72-68 in Frisco, Texas.

Barring a surprising postseason tournament selection, the Herd will finish the season with a record of 15-7 (9-5 in C-USA).

Head coach Dan D’Antoni said that the team did not play up to its normal standards.

“We did not play Marshall basketball,” D’Antoni said. “I thought we did a lot of homerun shooting, a lot of individual things early in the first half.”

Marshall shot 29.4% from three in the game, hitting 10 three-pointers in the game, but four of those 10 threes came in the final 55 seconds when Marshall was attempting a last-minute comeback.

Senior guard Jarrod West was the most efficient Marshall player, putting up 19 points, six rebounds, seven assists and two steals.

Senior forward Mikel Beyers also played a big role in keeping the game respectable, scoring 17 points and crashing the boards for a team-high eight rebounds.

For the Owls, sophomore guard Quincy Olivari led Rice in scoring with 23 points while also grabbing nine rebounds.

Sophomore forward Max Fiedler put up an efficient stat line, shooting 7-10 from the field while chipping in with 15 points and nine rebounds.

With the victory over Marshall, Rice advances to the quarterfinals of the C-USA tournament to take on the UAB Blazers.

Noah Hickman can be contacted at [email protected]