Tulane Women Finish off UAB, 73-68
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The Tulane women put were able to finish off an opponent for the second straight time, as the Green Wave scored in the paint and owned the boards in their 73-68 victory over UAB in Fogelman Arena Saturday.
The bookend wins, on Tuesday by 13 at Temple and Saturday afternoon against a better Alabama-Birmingham, put Tulane at 8-10 for the season, 3-3 in American Conference play. The Blazers drop to 7-11 overall, 0-for-6 in league games.
The Wave trailed 40-38 at the half, as UAB was shooting the lights out, hitting 48% of their shots from the field, including 47% of their 17-three-pointers.
"I thought we made some good adjustments at halftime," Tulane coach Ashley Langford shared after the game. "Ultimately, that fourth quarter, defensively, won us the game."
The Green Wave completely flipped the script on the hot-shooting Blazers in that pivotal final period, holding UAB to less than 27% from the field, Alabama-Birmingham going only 4 of their last 15 shots. The key was focusing on UAB guard Cali Smallwood, who had 17-points after the first 20-minutes of play.
"We wanted to limit the number of touches Smallwood had in the second half," Langford told us.
It worked. The junior guard only got off one shot in the second half, missing that one.
"We just emphasized we need to get more ball pressure," Langford said, "just be more aggressive on the defensive end, and I think that paid off for us.
Just a week ago, Langford was lamenting her team needing to learn to finish games, make plays that lead to a victory. The Green Wave did that, both on the road against Temple, but maybe more importantly in a close game such as the one Saturday afternoon against UAB.
Alabama-Birmingham went up by four with 1:41 to go in the game, 68-64. The Blazers would not score again, as Tulane went on a 9-0 run to close out the contest, including a dagger-in-the-heart three pointer from freshman Mecailin Marshall from the top of the key with 50-seconds to go to swing the score in the Green Wave's favor.
"I've always known we were capable of doing what we're seeing now," Langford explained. "I think it's really nice that they're (the team) able to see the result happen. We've been preaching it to them: stay the course, stick with the process, It'll work."
The Green Wave had five players in double-digits for the game. Senior forward Amira Mabry led the way with 13. Dyllan Hanna put in a dozen. Jayda Brown and Shiloh Kimpson came off the bench to score 11 and 10 respectively with guard Kanija Daniel adding 10. Over half of Tulane's points came from the paint, as the Wave put up 38 from short range.
The Wave had a dozen more rebounds than the Blazers. Hanna accounted for ten of Tulane's 42 boards, leading everyone on the court.
"I feel like there's always an emphasis on winning the boards," senior forward Hanna said after the game, "especially for me, because that's one of my main roles on this team."
Freshman guard Kimpson has had back-to-back double-digit scoring games, hitting eleven against Temple last week, then putting up ten Saturday afternoon, along with dishing out 5-assists and getting one of Tulane's steals against UAB.
"I always take pride in my defense," Kimpson told us in her first interview opportunity after a game for the Green Wave. "We made some adjustments based on how many threes they (UAB) were getting in the first half," echoing her coach's words.
"It felt good to win (this second game in a row) in front of our fans," Langford said with a smile on her face. Her entire team was waving to the almost 700-fans in the stands of Fogelman for the game. "They support us, regardless. Wins, losses, they love us. We want to give thanks to them."
Tulane has a week to prepare for possibly their most important American Conference game so far, as the Green Wave will be traveling to Houston to take on league-leading Rice on Saturday afternoon, January 24th.
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.