Tulane University
Memphis
Tulane Men Can't Keep Up With Memphis
Jan 24, 2001 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 24, 2001
NEW ORLEANS, La. - The University of Memphis placed six players in double figures and pulled away in the second half for its seventh straight win, a 91-69 victory over Tulane University in Conference USA men's basketball action on Wednesday evening at the New Orleans Arena.
After cutting the deficit to four at 54-50 with 13:16 to go, Tulane (7-11, 0-5 C-USA) fell into a slump, scoring just six points over then next five minutes. Meanwhile, Memphis (11-8, 5-1) had five players combine for 19 points in that same stretch, building a 73-56 lead with 8:19 remaining.
The Green Wave battled back to 11, but that was all, as Memphis pulled away again, building the lead to as many as 24 late in the game.
"I can sum it up in two ways," Tulane head coach Shawn Finney said. "Either we're out of shape or our guys aren't emotionally ready to play for 40 minutes. It's either conditioning or character and we've got to get to the bottom of it."
Tulane was led by sophomore Brandon Brown (Houma, La.), who had 16 points and eight rebounds, while junior Linton Johnson (Chicago, Ill.) posted his second straight double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Senior Ledaryl Billingsley (Chicago, Ill.) added 12 and sophomore Brandon Spann (New Orleans, La.) chipped in with 10. Freshman George Brown (Nashville, Tenn.) scored a career-high 11 points. It was the fifth time the Wave had five players in double figures, but the first loss in those games.
"We have to find a way to play hard when we get tired," Finney continued. "We have to play hard to make something good happen for us instead of waiting for something good to happen and then playing hard."
Memphis was led by Marcus Moody, who scored 16 points off the bench. Kelly Wise added 14 points and nine rebounds, while Earl Barron had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
The Tigers shot 52.2 percent from the field in the game, while the Wave shot just 43.3 percent. Memphis also held a 43-35 advantage on the boards, while committing just 12 turnovers. Tulane had 18 turnovers in the loss. Thirty-three of Memphis' points came from the bench.
"Memphis has a lot of different guys who can score points for them," Finney said. "They got 67 minutes off their bench. We end up playing half that many bench minutes and this was a good night for our bench."
The Wave led late in the first half, but the Tigers scored the final five points of the half to hold a 40-37 advantage at the break. Then the Tigers opened the second half with a 9-3 run to build a 49-40 edge.
Tulane goes on the road for a two-game swing to the north this weekend. On Saturday, the Wave meets Marquette at 1 p.m. Then on Monday, Tulane battles defending Conference USA Champion Cincinnati at 7 p.m. Tulane is back home on Saturday, Feb. 3, hosting South Florida at Fogelman Arena. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster or by calling 504-961-WAVE.
