Tulane Women Give Missou All It Can Handle before Falling, 77-69
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In a game that measures success in shots from the field, instead Thursday's contest between the women's basketball teams from Tulane and Missouri became a game of lines: free throw and three-pointer. Missou was able to be the best at both in a 77-69 Tiger victory.
First Half Score: Missouri 33 - Tulane 31
In the first half alone, the Tigers hit five of the fifteen three-pointers they shot, while missing but one of the nine free throws. Tulane couldn't find their range from beyond the arc, missing all ten of their three point attempts in the first twenty minutes. The Green Wave was sent to the line seven times, hitting only three.
The first two periods were dominated by defensive rebounding. In half number one, Missouri swiped 19-boards, all on the defensive end. Tulane had 29-rebounds, 20 on the defensive side. Both teams had a hard time holding on to the ball, each turning it over nine times apiece.
Final Score: Missouri 77 - Tulane 69
The tale of the lines continued in half number-two. Missou was 6-for-14 from beyond the arc in the second half alone and an sizzling 10-of-12 from the charity stripe. Tulane continued to be cold from three-point land, going 5-for-14 in the last two quarters of play, while free throws were a bug-a-boo for the Wave again in the final two stanzas, going 3-for-6 at the line.
Things were starting to get out of hand early in the final period. The Wave was behind by as much as 16-points at the 7:22 mark of the 4th quarter, but a pair of rare three-pointers in this game by Tulane, along with a free throw cut the Tiger lead to just four, 73-69, with :32 remaining in the game. The next two possessions spelled doom for Tulane, though, with back-to-back turnovers, leading to the Green Wave having to foul to try to get the ball back. It was to no avail, as Missouri hit the free throws to ice the game.
In talking about her team's efforts, coach Ashley Langford said there was no doubt her squad was hustling.
"Obviously not happy with the loss," Langford said after the game, "but a lot of lessons to be learned this early in the season. We're still figuring it out, and that's okay. I'm proud of how we competed and fought to the end."
With a quality team like Missouri coming in to Fogelman, Langford knew it would be a tight contest.
"We knew it was going to be a challenge," Langford referring to the Tiger team. "They're a good team. Obviously we wanted to get one (a victory), but we'll be better for it."
The Green Wave continue their four-game season-opening homestand on Wednesday, November 12, when North Florida comes to Fogelman Arena for an early contest, set for an 11:00 a.m. tipoff.
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.