Tulane Green Wave Men’s Basketball Maturation on Display in Improbable Win Over UTSA

The entire 2024-25 men’s college basketball season has been a learning experience for the Tulane Green Wave.

With zero seniors and a roster made up mostly of players who had yet to garner much playing time at the Divison I level, head coach Ron Hunter knew that there would be some growing pains along the way.

In their non-conference schedule, they were on display regularly.

Squandering of leads or not coming out with the requisite energy to win games was occurring all too often.

During American Athletic Conference play, those issues have been far and few between as the team has played at a higher level.

There have been bouts where their lack of experinece has burned them, such as down the stretch against a veteran-laden Memphis Tigers squad who is ranked in the top 25 of the country.

But those hard lessons from early in the year have benefitted them in other contests, such as Wednesday night against the UTSA Roadrunners.

This was the second time the teams were playing this season, as the Green Wave ran them out of Devlin Fieldhouse on Jan. 4, 92-63. They faced a much stiffer test this time around, as an incredibly sluggish start left them in an eight-point hole at half time.

Trailing by as many as 15 points, nothing went right for Tulane for a majority of the evening. But, it is not how you start; it is how you finish and the Green Wave epitomized that on Wednesday.

Down by nine points with 2:16 remaining in the game, the Green Wave went on a torrid 10-0 run to finish the game, earning an improbable 61-60 victory.

“I don’t know if I’ve had a team that played that poorly and found a way to win,” Hunter said via Guerry Smith of NOLA.com. “We were sluggish, but we just found a way. I’m still sitting here trying to figure out how we won.”

Timely 3-point buckets from Asher Woods and Kaleb Banks and four clutch free throws from Rowan Brumbaugh were the difference, as the team’s stingy defense got the necessary stops to make the comeback possible.

For once, it was their opponent who fell apart down the stretch from suffocating defense as the Roadrunners, playing without star guard Primo Spears, wilted down the stretch with ill-advised attempts and a shot clock violation.

Depsite playing what Hunter called the worst half of the year in the first 20 minutes, the team found a way to prevail, picking up their 13th win of the season and seventh in AAC play.

Now in a tie for third place, they will have a chance to take sole possession of that spot over the weekend when they head on the road to face the North Texas Mean Green.

That could be a real rock fight as both teams have been excelling on the defensive end of the court this campaign.

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