Tulsa beats Tulane 76-55, now tied with SMU atop American

TULSA, Okla. (AP) James Woodard scored 18 points, Rashad Smith had 17 and Tulsa rolled to a 76-55 victory over Tulane on Wednesday night to pull into a first-place tie in the American Conference.

Tulsa (20-7, 13-2) has won three-straight and is tied with No. 21 SMU (22-5, 13-2), which plays at Memphis on Thursday night.

Woodard was 6 of 11 from the floor, including 4 of 8 from long range. Smith finished on 5-of-8 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds. Rashad Ray dished out six assists and added 10 points for Tulsa, which shot 25 of 44 from the field (56.8 percent) and outrebounded Tulane 37-29.

Tulsa used an 18-3 run, including four straight 3-pointers, to make it 66-41 with 5:08 to play.

Louis Dabney hit three of his five 3-pointers in the final 1:58 to finish with a career-high 32 points to lead Tulane (14-13, 5-10).