Tulane Women's Smothering D Pushes Past Delaware State, 76-44
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Behind 10 blocks, the Tulane women’s basketball team trounced Delaware State 76-44 at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon. The triumph moves the Green Wave to 5-6 on the season and into the championship of the Tulane Holiday Tournament. The Hornets drop to 3-10.
Green Wave Offense on Fire
Tulane shot a blistering 51.0 percent with a 37.5 percent mark from three. Delaware State was held to just 28.1 percent from the floor with a 29.4 percent clip beyond the arc. Tulane won the glass 37-29 and owned the paint with 30 points to the 18 of the Hornets. The Wave blocked a season-high 10 shots, the highest block total for the team under head coach Ashley Langford. The 10 denials are the most for Tulane since posting 10 blocks against New Orleans on December 6, 2023.
Mecailin Marshall and Kayla Hampton tied for the team lead with 12 points each. Hampton’s mark is a career high as she knocked down all four of her shot attempts, all from three. A quartet of Wave players tallied eight points: Dyllan Hanna, CC Mays, Amira Mabry, and Kanija Daniel. Mabry had 11 rebounds to lead the team, and Hanna added seven. Hanna recorded five blocks to match her career best and account for half of the Tulane total. Mays had four assists to tie for the team lead with Kendall Sneed and Shiloh Kimpson. The four helpers are a new high for Kimpson.
Tulane Goes on Run after Run
Tulane scored first after an Amira Mabry bucket. Delaware State pulled level, but Mecailin Marshall scored a layup to push Tulane back in front, and the Wave never looked back. An eight-point run pushed the Wave lead to 10-2. The Hornets scored, but Tulane began to roll again with another run, including a three by Marshall. The Hornets scored with just over a minute left in the quarter, but Kayla Hampton immediately parried with a three-ball. This concluded the quarter with Tulane ahead 19-6.
Kendall Sneed opened the second quarter with a pair of free throws, and Tulane kept its foot on the gas from there. Kanija Daniel swished a trey, and the Wave rolled throughout the second frame. The offense was nearly unstoppable, shooting a sweltering 75.0 percent in the second stanza while locking down the Hornets on the defensive end. Delaware State was in danger of being blanked until finally scoring a layup with 1:40 on the clock to mark a scoreless drought of almost a full quarter, nine minutes and 38 seconds to be exact. Despite the bucket, Daniel popped another three, and the final 11 points of the frame belonged to Tulane. The half ended with back-to-back treys by CC Mays and Hampton as the Wave’s advantage at halftime stood tall at 48-8. Tulane outscored Delaware State 29-2 in the second quarter with the 29 points tying the Wave’s season high for a quarter. The 40-point halftime lead is the program’s largest at the break since leading Puerto Rico – Mayaguez 60-14 at half on November 23, 2001.
Mabry kicked off the third frame with a pair at the charity stripe, and the first four points belonged to Tulane after a Dyllan Hanna put-back. The Hornets responded with a three and later put together an eight-point run to make the margin 56-21. After trading free throws, Delaware State added another three, but Marshall put home one of her own with 29 seconds remaining as Tulane’s lead entering the final frame was 61-27.
Delaware State scored the first five points of the fourth quarter, but Marshall’s jumper broke the run. Hampton added another trey. Despite the Hornets scoring beyond the arc as well, the first-half hole proved too large for them to overcome. The Wave raced away with a 76-44 victory to advance to the championship of the Tulane Holiday Tournament.
Tournament Championship Set for Sunday
Tulane will face Mercer for the tournament championship Sunday at 1:30 p.m. The title bout takes place after the third-place match-up between Delaware State and Detroit Mercy at 11:00 a.m. Tulane’s game will be streamed on ESPN+.
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.