Tulane University
UNC Greensboro
Defense Leads Women's Basketball Past UNC Greensboro
Dec 28, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 28, 2002
NEW ORLEANS, La - -
Tulane 63, UNC Greensboro 43 - Box Score
Boston College 67, SMU 57 - Box Score
Junior guards Kelly Nadeau and Muci Haris combined for 27 points and eight steals to lead the Tulane women's basketball team to a 63-43 win over UNC Greensboro in the first round of the DoubleTree Classic at Fogelman Arena on Saturday.
Tulane won its fourth straight game to improve to 7-2 overall, while UNC Greensboro dropped to 4-3 with the loss. The Wave will face No. 19 Boston College in the DoubleTree championship game on Sunday after the Eagles posted a 67-57 win over SMU.
With 11 of 12 player seeing at least 10 minutes of action, Tulane relied on its defensive intensity to race past UNCG. The Green Wave tied a school record with 22 steals after forcing 31 UNCG turnovers, while holding the Spartans to just 15 points at halftime - the lowest first-half total in UNCG history.
"I was very happy with our defensive intensity today," Tulane head coach Lisa Stockton said. "We were able to create offense from our defense early on which gave us a big lead that let us put a lot of different players in the game."
The Green Wave held UNC Greensboro to just one field goal through the first 7:16 while building a 16-3 lead. Tulane pushed its margin to 21, 34-13, before taking a 19-point lead into the locker room. Tulane led by as many as 26 in the second half. The Spartans lost forward Jennifer Hart to a knee injury barely one minute into the contest. She entered the game as UNCG's second-leading scorer, averaging 11.8 points per game.
Nadeau led all scorers with 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor, while also adding five rebounds three assists and two steals. Haris was 4-of-5 from the floor for 11 points and chipped in three assists and six thefts. Gwen Slaughter added seven points for Tulane and pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.
Tulane held UNC Greensboro to just 16.7 percent shooting from behind the three-point line (1-of-6), while connecting on 6-of-11 three-point attempts (54.5 percent). The Wave also had a 38-33 edge in rebounding and held UNCG's top scorer, Jacinda Lambert, to just eight points - a full seven below her average heading into the game.
In the second game of the DoubleTree, Clare Droesch had 16 points off the bench to lead Boston College to a 67-57 win over SMU. The Eagles pulled out the win despite losing leading scorer Becky Gottstein with a left ankle sprain just five minutes into the contest. She is listed as doubtful for Sunday's championship game.
Boston College led 29-25 at halftime but saw SMU rally to take a 36-33 lead with 14:30 left in the game. However, BC answered with seven straight points to take a 40-36 lead with 11:16 remaining and never trailed again. The Eagles slowly pulled away over the final 10 minutes, pushing its lead to 14 with just under two minutes left before claiming the 10-point victory.
SMU and UNC Greensboro will meet in the DoubleTree Classic consolation game at 1 p.m. on Sunday before Tulane and Boston College meet for the championship at approximately 3 p.m.
Following the weekend tournament, Tulane will travel to face nationally-ranked Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., on Thursday, Jan. 2.
