Tulane Men Start Slow in 65-63 Win Against Grambling
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The Tulane men's basketball team was able to overcome a slow start and eek by the visiting Grambling State Tigers, 65-63 Tuesday night.
Before the game even started, things looked a little off for Tulane. During warn ups before their game in Fogelman Arena, the Wave might have missed almost every shot they took except dunks, and they might have missed a few of those as well.
Halftime: Grambling 31 - Tulane 30
The Green Wave's targeting didn't get any better while the clock was running. In the first half, the Wave hit only 32% from the floor of the 31 shots it took. The three-point line was the only thing keeping TU competitive in the first twenty minutes, going 6-14 from beyond the arc. Tulane didn't score on back-to-back possessions at any time in the first stanza.
It seemed as if the Green Wave was playing tentative in the first half, staying on the perimeter and looking for shots from outside the paint. Tulane coach Ron Hunter credits the Grambling D.
"Probably the best defense we've seen all year," Hunter admitted. "They switch (positions) one through five because of their athleticism. I think they took us out of what we wanted to do, for the most part."
Second Half Final: Tulane 65 - Grambling 63
In half number two, sophomore guard Josiah Moore played a more prominent role, bringing a physicality to the court for the Green Wave.
"I thought his (Moore's) energy, defensively, kind of turned the game for us," Hunter said pointing Moore.
"The emphasis of my game is defense," Moore told us after the game. "I want to be the best defender on the court. So my energy has to be high. If anybody gets past me, he (pointing to his coach, Hunter) is going to hold me to a standard."
The Tigers cooled off in the 2nd period, shooting 40% from the field and only 25% from three-point land.
Along with his defensive firecracker Moore, Hunter also had Curtis Williams, Jr in the post-game media room. There's good reason for having both those young men with him, but first some background.
"I'm a defensive coach," Hunter began, "and this is probably the worst five or six game stretch we ever had defensively," referring to the UNO, Utah State, Boston College, and Nicholls State games in particular). "I thought we'd make some changes, and we freed their mind up a little more today, and this team came through.
"What I love about this team, is that there's no panic," Hunter concluded. "Last year, a couple of times, we had some close games, and we couldn't win them, but (this year) there's no panic. It seems like every game we play is a close game, regardless of who we're playing. but we just find ways to win a game."
Tulane, now 6-2 on the season, has two more contests in this four-game homestand. The first is this Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m. when the Zips of Akron visit Fogelman Arena.
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.