Tulsa Blows Away Tulane Men, 90-56
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It would not be an exaggeration to say Wednesday night’s game between Tulane and Tulsa men’s basketball game was the biggest of the year in Fogelman Arena.
The visiting Hurricane, at 10-5 in conference play, are a game-and-a-half in back of South Florida, at 11-3 the team atop the American Conference heap. The homestanding Green Wave are tied in the 5th slot, tied with Charlotte, both at 8-6. The top six teams get byes in the league tournament in Birmingham, AL, which begins March 11.
The Green Wave found out why Tulsa is so high up the leader board in the AAC Wednesday, running into a Hurricane buzzsaw, as the battle of the TUs went the way of the Oklahomans, 90 - 56.
"We got beat up today," Tulane coach Ron Hunter shared after the game. "They're (Tulsa) playing for a championship, and they showed it.
"I thought we were out of when we came out of the locker room," Hunter continued. "
"I thought we were mentally and physically fatigued," Hunter said. "I'm not trying to take anything away from them (Tulsa). They're a really good team, but I thought we practiced that way yesterday."
First Half: Tulsa 45 - Tulane 29
Both teams came out hot to begin the game. At the first media timeout, with about five minutes elapsed, Tulsa led 11-9. The Hurricane hitting 63% of their shots from the field, with a pair of baskets on layups that had beaten the Tulane matchup. Curtis Williams Jr had seven points, including a three from way out above the top of the key.
Officials were allowing physical play. The Green Wave were consistently missing wide open shots, especially from three-point land. After the aforementioned media timeout, the Wave didn’t score for almost five minutes, while the Hurricane went on a 5-0 run.
The Green Wave crept to within two, but went cold again leading up to the third media timeout at the 6:10 mark, as Tulane was 0 for 2-minutes & 50-seconds, while Tulsa went on a 6-0 run, giving the Hurricane a 24-16 lead at that point.
The physical play being allowed is not playing into the hands of the Wave. Any slashes to the basket were caught by a Tulsa body check early and often. Meanwhile, Tulane had issues filling the lanes defensively in its matchup, with the Hurricane finding seams, especially on the baseline.
The Hurricane continued its blistering shooting, hitting 53% of their field goals. Tulsa was getting those baseline slashes that helped the field goal percentages. Tulane hit 38% of their shots from the field, going 11-29.
Leading the way for the Wave at the half, Curtis Williams Jr with a fourteen. Asher Woods had eight. Season leading scorer Rowan Brumbaugh didn’t get a point until the 1:47 mark with a three. He was 0-for-4 until then.
Tulsa owned the boards with a 20-14 advantage, but where the Hurricane really showed through was the assist category, as Tulsa had 12 to the Green Wave’s five in the first half.
Final: Tulsa 90 - Tulane 56
The Hurricane built up a lead as much as 37 in the second half, as Tulsa continued to take advantage of gaps in the Tulane matchup defense. Tulsa hit 49.2% of their shots from the field, 45% of their three pointers.
"You've been playing so well during the year," Hunter explained. "You've got to dig deeper this time of year. This is the first time these guys (Tulane) are going through that. But even ifwe had played great, they (Tulsa) shot the lights out. They played like a championship basketball team."
Hunter cleared the Tulane bench with under two minutes to play, giving bench warmers a chance to play.
The leading scorer for the Wave was Curtis Williams Jr with 16-points. Asher Woods added 14 as the only other Greenie in double-digits. Tulsa owned the boards with a 42-29 advantage.
"We've got another one this weekend against a team trying to win a championship," Hunter wrapped up. Tulane will be on the road Sunday afternoon to take on South Florida in Tampa. The Bulls are atop the American Conference standings.
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.