Tulane Men Use D to Stop FAU, 69-66
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Using a smothering defense and forcing four turnovers by Florida Atlantic in the last two minutes of play, the Tulane men's basketball (11-4, 2-0) scored the final seven points of Sunday's game to come from behind and defeat Florida Atlantic (9-6, 1-1) 69-66 on Sunday afternoon at Fogelman Arena. The Green Wave forced the Owls into 13 second half turnovers.
"Boy, conference play is here," Tulane coach Ron Hunter said after the game. "Those were two good teams going at it." But before Hunter talked anymore about the game, he gave kudos to FAU's team for something they did off the court.
Class Act by Florida Atlantic
"The situation we had with the passing of Gregg," Hunter said, referring to this past Summer's tragic death of star forward Gregg Glenn III in a swimming accident, "one of the nicest things I've ever had anyone do for me or my team. Every single person on Florida Atlantic's team: every player, staff, coach, sent us a personalized letter. I've never seen anything like that. I wanted to publicly say thank you to the Florida Atlantic community. Our kids, our program, truly appreciate it."
With the win, the Wave earned its fifth consecutive victory in a conference home opener and improved to 6-6 in those contests since joining The American ahead of the 2014-15 season. The victory also moved Tulane's third straight win over Florida Atlantic and moved the Green Wave to 8-2 all-time against the Owls including a 5-1 mark in Uptown.
Brumbaugh & Woods Lead the Way Again
The veteran backcourt duo of Rowan Brumbaugh and Asher Woods led the Tulane offensive attack Sunday afternoon. Brumbaugh finished with a game-high 20 points on 6-of-14 shooting with a pair of three-pointers. The performance marked the 14th game with double figures in scoring this season for the redshirt junior and his fourth 20-point game of the year.
Meanwhile, Woods followed with 16 points including 13 coming in the second half. The Atlanta native, who has a knack for clutch scoring, converted the go-ahead and-one with under a minute remaining to cap the Wave's 7-0 scoring run to end the game. He also sank a pair of threes and swiped a team-high three steals.
TU Defense Keys the Victory
As a team, the Green Wave forced Florida Atlantic into a season-high 18 turnovers with 12 steals. Seven different players recorded at least one steal against the Owls while four players for the Wave swiped multiple steals. While Woods led the team with three steals Brumbaugh, Scotty Middleton, and Tyler Ringgold each added two. Ringgold also set a career-high swatting a team-best four blocks in the contest.
As a team, the Wave accounted for seven blocked shots against FAU. The Owls came into the game leading the league in team blocks, garnering five in this game, their season average.
The Green Wave had a hard time finding the bucket again, shooting 40% from the field, but the Tulane defense forced those double-digit turnovers by Florida Atlantic and earned 16-points off those Owl giveaways.
"We pride ourselves on our defense," Hunter told the media after the game. "We don't want to talk about being the best defensive team in the league, we want to actually show it. We needed to have this win. Florida Atlantic is not going to lose many games at home. We've got to go back there in about ten days, so we know we needed this win."
Wave Starts Strong
Tulane began the game by attacking from beyond the arc hitting four shots from downtown in the first four-plus minutes. The fourth of those three-pointers sparked a quick 7-0 spurt for the Wave to take its largest lead of the opening frame 16-9 with 14:07 to play.
The Green Wave and the Owls went back-and-forth over the next several minutes exchanging five times before meeting at a 32-32 tie with 3:06 on the clock. Florida Atlantic managed to score the final four points in the closing minutes of the half putting Tulane behind 36-32 at the break.
Momentum stayed on the side of the Owls to open the second half as the Wave faced its largest deficit of the day trailing 41-34 just over three minutes into the frame. Tulane slowly chipped away to eventually reclaim the lead 46-44 on a fastbreak layup from Brumbaugh that started with a block by Josiah Moore.
The advantage did not last for the Green Wave as Florida Atlantic responded with nine-straight points matching its biggest lead at 53-46 with 8:45 remaining. Once again, the Wave battled back to briefly pull in front before the Owls answered to put Tulane down 62-66 with 2:27 to play.
Middleton knocked down a big three-pointer to pull Tulane within a point and spark the final rally for the Green Wave in the closing moments. After Brumbaugh hit one of two free throws to tie the game at 66-66, Woods stepped up as he so often has for the Wave converting a layup plus the foul to put Tulane in the lead with under a minute remaining.
The defense for the Green Wave was ready to seal the deal forcing Florida Atlantic into a pair of turnovers in the final minute to secure the 69-66 victory.
Next, the Green Wave will visit San Antonio, Texas, to face UTSA on Saturday, January 10. The game between Tulane and the Roadrunners is slated to start at 4 p.m. on ESPN+.
Portions Courtesy Tulane Athletics
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.