Tulane University
TCU
Men's Basketball Falls To TCU, 106-87
Feb 26, 2002 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 26, 2002
NEW ORLEANS - TCU's Junior Blount matched the Conference USA scoring record with 42 points as he led the Horned Frogs to a 106-87 victory over Tulane University on Tuesday evening at Fogelman Arena.
Blount matched the league scoring record set by Cincinnati's Melvin Levett against Eastern Kentucky on Dec. 20, 1997. The junior guard connected on 15-of-22 shots, including 6-of-10 three-pointers. His 42 points has also been surpassed by one player in Fogelman Arena history: LSU's Pete Maravich, who owns the record with a 66-point outing on Feb. 10, 1969. It is the most points scored against the Wave since Feb. 16, 1970 when Notre Dame's Austin Carr notched 53.
"He was in a zone," Tulane coach Shawn Finney said. "When you take 22 shots and score 42 points, that's putting on a show."
After Tulane's Waitari Marsh connected on a 30-footer at the halftime buzzer to cut the halftime deficit to just six at 47-41, the Wave seemed to have momentum.
"I thought we had some momentum," Finney said. "We came out and played well the first five to eight minutes of the second half, and then it got away from us."
The Wave cut the deficit to four early in the half, and then five on five different occasions. A Karl Hollingsworth reverse layup with 14:24 to go made it 61-56. However, Bingo Merriex and Blount connected on back-to-back three-pointers to push the margin to 11.
Tulane would cut it to six at 68-62 on a Linton Johnson three-pointer with 12:30 to go, but TCU used a 12-0 run, including eight points from Blount, to push the lead to 18 at 80-62 with 9:36 to go.
The Green Wave connected on 50.7 percent (35-of-69) of its shots, but TCU nailed 60 percent (39-of-65) of its shots. Both teams connected on 11 three-pointers in the game. The 11 threes by the Wave matches the third-most in a single game for Tulane.
"We played well-enough offensively to win the basketball game," Finney said. "But we tried to out-shoot them and that's their game."
Marsh led the Green Wave with 19 points, while Brandon Brown had 14 points and nine rebounds. Linton Johnson and Brandon Spann were also in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Despite the loss, Tulane is ensured a bid to the upcoming Conference USA tournament (March 6-9 in Cincinnati). The top 12 teams in the league qualify and Southern Miss and DePaul were both eliminated on Tuesday evening.
Next up for the Green Wave is its final regular season home game on Saturday. The Wave hosts Saint Louis at Fogelman Arena at 7 p.m.
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