Tulane Men Surprise Memphis, 78-76
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If there was a must win situation for the Tulane men's basketball team, it was Sunday afternoon. As if that wasn't bad enough, they had to play in Memphis against a Tiger team that rarely loses at home. Rare air belongs to the Green Wave this time, as the Wave led for almost the entire game, hanging on for dear life at game's end in a 78-76 Tulane victory. The win breaks TU's five-game losing streak in style, as Ron Hunter's group played hard the entire game.
"I'll be honest with you," Hunter shared with us this week, "every game is a must win (now). What we need is something good to happen for us." Only time will tell if this is the type of game that gets the Green Wave over the hump.
First Half: Tulane 39 - Memphis 31
For the first time in what seems like an eternity, the Green Wave was hitting their shots from the field. Tulane hit 52% of their field goals, including 6-of-their-11 three pointers. The Wave was their usual free throw selves, going 9-of-12.
The Tulane backcourt of Rowan Brumbaugh and Asher Woods led the way for the Green Wave in the first twenty minutes. Brumbaugh had a baker's dozen, not missing a shot from the field or the free throw line. Woods had eleven. The Wave forced the larger, more physical Tigers into eight turnovers by staying on the floor and knocking the ball out of their hands on a consistent basis. That led to Tulane garnering 12-points off turnovers in the first half.
Tulane led by as much as 15-points in the first half, as the home-standing Tigers had a hard time finding the rim.
The real difference maker for the Green Wave was the TU defense. Memphis shot a measly 29% from the floor in the first period, getting six more shots off than Tulane did, but only getting home 8-of-those-29 field goals, including a shocking 1-of-9 from three point land.
Memphis owned the boards after the first twenty minutes, 23-13.
Final Score: Tulane 78 - Memphis 76
In a physically played game, a trio of Greenies fouled out in the second half. The first to go, guard Luke Rasmussen, who left the game after picking up his fifth foul in the first forty seconds of the second period. Scotty Middleton was next for TU, garnering his fifth personal at the 4:55 mark. Senior Percy Daniels left the game with his fifth with just 28-second remaining in the game.
The second half was close, as the Tigers started to turn Tulane turnovers into scores. Memphis forced the Green Wave into thirteen second half TOs, that ended up in eleven Tiger points. Memphis took the lead twice in the game, but the Wave found ways to get back on top every time. Once by a pair of Brumbaugh free throws followed by a Percy Daniels second-chance tip-in.
There were five ties in the second twenty minutes of play, the last of which came with 14-seconds remaining when the Tigers hit a two-point jumper. The Green Wave offense got the ball in Brumbaugh's hands, and the junior drove hard to the basket to give Tulane the lead for good with just 6-seconds remaining.
Brumbaugh led all scorers in the contest, playing all 40-minutes of the game, pouring in 27-points, hitting 8-of-his-13 field goals, going 3-of-7 from three point land and 8-for-10 from the free throw line. Fellow guard Asher Woods has his best game in weeks, swishing four of his five three pointers and going 5-for-10 from the field adding up to 19-points with his 5-of-6 free throws. Forward Tyler Ringgold picked up his fourth personal foul of the game at the 16:36 mark of the second period, but played the game without fouling out, something that has plagued the redshirt sophomore. Ringgold ended up the third Greenie to hit double digits with a dozen points.
The Wave finished the game shooting 50% from the field, the first time the Green Wave has hit the fifty percentile mark since November 28th in a win against Nicholls State.
The victory improves Tulane's season record to 13-9, 4-5 in the American Conference. Memphis drops to 10-11 on the year, 5-4 in league play.
Next up, the Green Wave have a week off before coming back home to entertain Wichita State in a Sunday afternoon contest.
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.