Tulane Women in American Tournament with 62-54 Win over Shockers
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In a back-and-forth affair Saturday afternoon, the Tulane Green Wave outlasted Wichita State with a 62-54 triumph at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse on senior day. The victory improved Tulane to 11-17 (6-10 American) as the Green Wave clinched a berth in the American Conference Tournament. The Shockers fall to 7-22 (4-12 American).
Pregame Tulane honored the following six senior student-athletes as part of senior day festivities: Kayla Hampton, Dyllan Hanna, Amira Mabry, CC Mays, Jordyn Weaver, and Jaylee Womack.
Field Goals=Good, Threes=Nil
The Wave shot nearly 50 percent on the afternoon with a mark of 47.1 percent. However, Tulane did not hit a three-pointer, going 0-for-10 for the first contest without a trey since 2023. The Shockers shot 34.0 percent with six made triples. Wichita State won the glass 37-29, but the turnover battle favored Tulane as the Wave committed a season-low 11 giveaways while forcing 19. Tulane converted 10 more points off turnovers with 23 to Wichita State’s 13. To further stifle on defense, Tulane swatted five blocks while getting rejected just once on offense.
More Mabry Record-Setting
A trio scored in double figures for Tulane with Kanija Daniel pacing the team with 20 points. She shot 8-of-13 for her fourth 20-ball of the season while adding four boards, two assists, two steals, and a block. Amira Mabry notched 15 points with a team-high eight rebounds. Mabry now has 1,060 points in her career to move up 27th in program history, surpassing current head coach and 2009 graduate Ashley Langford. Jayda Brown added 10 points to round out the double-digit scorers. CC Mays and Shiloh Kimpson each dished three helpers to tie for the team lead. Dyllan Hanna amassed three of the five Tulane blocks, with Mabry and Daniel each posting one. Daniel and Mabry both notched two swipers as well to tie for the team lead.
Wichita State claimed the first score of the contest, but Tulane immediately pulled level with a pair of free throws by Kanija Daniel. Mecailin Marshall then added a layup with Jayda Brown following. However, the Shockers responded with a three. Tulane stretched the margin back out to 10-5, and after trading baskets, the Wave pulled ahead to 14-9. The Shockers then found a groove, scoring back-to-back threes and a layup to pull ahead 17-14. Amira Mabry closed the quarter with two foul shots to trim the margin to 17-16 after the opening 10 minutes of play.
The second quarter was a defensive battle with each team scoring just nine points. The first points of the quarter came at the 7:46 mark on a Wichita State tip-in. Tulane got back on the board with 5:45 on the clock behind a Mabry free throw. After Shocker free throws, Brown sparked a six-point run to push Tulane back in front 25-22. However, Wichita State closed the half with four foul shots to claim a 26-25 lead at the break.
The second half opened with the teams trading buckets before Mabry added two free throws to push Tulane back in front by a point. After a Shocker three, Mabry went inside before Wichita State added its own layup with the lead continuing to see-saw. The Shockers pulled ahead to 37-32 before the Wave pulled to within two points at 37-35. Wichita State added another three, but Daniel claimed three the old-fashioned way with a layup and free throw. Daniel tied the game at 40-all before the Shockers added two free throws, claiming a 42-40 edge entering the final frame.
More Back-and-Forth in the Fourth
Daniel needed just 33 seconds in the fourth quarter to tie the game. After a Shocker free throw, the lead changed hands three times before a Daniel layup made the score 48-45. The Shockers kept fighting, tying the game with a three and pulling back ahead with a foul shot. Mabry flipped the script again with a jumper, but two free throws flipped the lead once more. Dyllan Hanna pushed Tulane back in front with 3:33 remaining, and with 2:43 to go Daniel perfectly read an inbounds pass to jump it and convert the steal into an easy lay-in. Tulane led 54-51, and after Mabry scored the Shockers added a layup with 1:18 on the clock. Tulane led 56-53, and after a foul, the Shockers split a pair of free throws to pull within 56-54 with 1:18 to go. Brown quickly scored, and after a lost ball turnover, Wichita State was forced to start fouling. Tulane converted from there at the line, closing out a 62-54 triumph on senior day.
With a conference tournament berth now locked up, the Green Wave enters the final week of the regular season with two more contests to play. Tulane plays its final road game on Tuesday at Florida Atlantic with tip-off in Boca Raton scheduled for 6:00 p.m. CT. The regular-season finale will occur on Saturday, March 7, when Tulane welcomes South Florida to New Orleans. That contest will begin at 2:00 p.m. Both games will stream on ESPN+ and can be heard on WRBH 88.3 FM.
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.