Tulane Men Losing Streak Hits Five as South FL Prevails, 97-83
In this story:
Just how bad were things in the Tulane men's 97-83 loss to South Florida Wednesday night?
- Tulane’s leading scorer, Rowan Brumbaugh, who’s been averaging almost 20-points a game this season, didn’t hit his first three-pointer until there was 7-and-a-half minutes left in the contest.
- The usually reliable free throw line for the Green Wave went cold as well, as the Wave hit 16 of 24, well below their American Conference 2nd best rate of 77%.
- The Tulane "D" that got the Green Wave to a 3-and-0 early conference record, allowed USF to hit near the 50% mark from the field for most of the game.
- With 5:47 to go in the contest, the Fogelman Arena lights blinked out temporarily, then did it again at the 5:04 mark. The lights of Fogelman are on a timer, set to turn off at 10:00 p.m. and someone forgot to turn the timer off with the late start of the game.
It was just one of those nights....and South Florida is downright good.
"That was a good basketball team we played tonight," Hunter pointed out. "I can't remember the last time we got manhandled in the paint that way. We're in a rough patch right now. What we've got to do is not worry about the next game. We've got to worry about getting better the next day."
Getting his first start in Uptown, redshirt sophomore guard Luke Rasmussen joined three other guards along with forward Tyler Ringgold, who had been suffering from a leg injury, in a move that coach Ron Hunter made hoping to give a moribund Tulane offense a spark. The Green Wave, however, continued to suffer with poor aim from the field in the fourteen point defeat at the hands of the Bulls. The loss was the fifth in a row for Hunter’s troops, the first time Tulane has hit a five-game skid since November 22 to December 7, 2024.
First Half: South Florida 52 - Tulane 39
The aforementioned Rasmussen showed hustle early, especially on the defensive side of the balll, forcing two jump balls in the first 2:45 of the game. The guard from Pennsylvania ended up with 6-points in the 1st period. Asher Woods led the way for the Wave with a dozen, while Tyler Ringgold put in eight when not in foul trouble.
"I thought putting Luke in there early brought some energy in that regard," Hunter said.
Ringgold, who has gotten into early trouble in the realm of personal fouls as of late, followed that same script against USF. The Baton Rouge native picked up his first foul less than a minute into the contest. His second and third fouls were on the ledger by the time there was a little less than 3-and-a-half minutes left in the first stanza.
The first twenty minutes was a half of runs, mostly in favor of the visiting Bulls. Though the Green Wave was able to claim its only lead of the half at the 10:10 mark off a Scotty Middleton 3-pointer, it was short lived. South Florida went on an 11-0 run two-thirds of the way through the 1st while at the same time, the Wave went 0-for on the ten shots they took.
While Tulane was hitting only 36% of their shots from the first half field, 5-of-17 from three-point land, South Florida hit a sizzling 58% from the field. Part of that was USF regularly beating the TU matchup zone on the inside, leading to 28-points in the paint and 14-second chance points for the Bulls.
South Florida had the advantage on the boards as well, garnering two dozen rebounds to the Wave’s 17.
Final Score: South Florida 97 - Tulane 83
The second period saw more runs in favor of the visitors. Before the midway point of the last twenty minutes, the Green Wave had an almost three minute scoring drought while USF continued to take advantage of gaps in the Tulane defense, slicing into the middle of the Wave matchup zone, getting points in the paint and building on what was a 10-point lead at the 15:30 mark to twice that just two-and-a-half minutes later.
Ringgold picked up foul number 4 at the 16:26 mark of the second half, then his fifth with 9:54 left in the game. He fouled out with 14-points, three rebounds, and four turnovers.
A total of five Greenies hit the double-digit mark: Ringgold had those fourteen, as did guard Asher Woods. Brumbaugh ended up with a dozen, as did Curtis Williams, Jr., and Rasmussen score 11. The final rebound figures had the Bulls with a 48-30 advantage. USF pulled down 17-offensive boards to Tulane's eight.
"To be honest with you, we've got to do a better job on the glass," Hunter lamented. "That's the difference in the game."
With the loss, Tulane falls to 12-9 on the season, 3-5 in the American Conference. South Florida improves to 14-7 and is tied for the league lead with Tulsa and Florida Atlantic at 6-2.
Next up for the Green Wave, a trip to Memphis Sunday afternoon to take on the Tigers.
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.