Tulane University
Louisville
Women's Basketball Tops Defending Conference USA Champs
Feb 3, 2002 | Women's Basketball
Feb. 3, 2002
NEW ORLEANS, La. - - The Tulane women's basketball team used a 15-6 burst midway through the second half to post a 70-54 win over defending Conference USA champion Louisville at Fogelman Arena on Sunday.
Tulane improved to 16-8 overall and 4-5 in Conference USA action, while Louisville lost for the second straight game to fall to 13-9 and 5-4 in league play.
Tulane held a narrow 44-42 lead with 10:29 left before Delacey Joseph hit a long three-pointer to start the run. Louisville answered with a fast-break lay-up but Teana McKiver converted on an old-fashioned three-point play to give the Wave a 50-44 cushion at the 8:09 mark. The Cardinals hit a free throw to trim the lead to five when Kelly Nadeau hit a three-pointer with the shot clock running down to give the Wave a 53-45 advantage. After a Louisville turnover, Gwen Slaughter hit a lay-up, courtesy of a Nadeau assist, and hit a free throw after being fouled. Louisville hit a jumper to trim the lead to nine, but Slaughter answered with another lay-up and Joseph capped the burst with a jumper after a Nadeau steal to give Tulane a 60-47 lead with 4:11 left. Louisville trimmed the lead to 10, but Tulane hit five of six free throws inside the final minute to seal the win.
Slaughter led all scorers with 17 points, while pulling down seven rebounds. She was 6-of-6 from the floor, while adding two assists, two blocks and two steals without committing a turnover in 30 minutes of work. Teana McKiver added 13 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots. Nadeau added 10 points, three rebounds, four assists and two blocks.
"Today we played like we were having fun and that makes a world of difference," Tulane head coach Lisa Stockton said. "I felt like we really stayed within our system today. When you are doubting yourself, you have to trust the system even more. We kept attacking today and really played hard."
Tulane started the game strong, scoring on its first three possessions. After McKiver hit a jumper to give Tulane a 2-0 lead, Louisville answered with a three-pointer for a 3-2 advantage. Britt Themann hit a three-pointer to start a 10-0 Tulane run and the Green Wave would never trail again. Louisville pulled to within four, 20-16, but four different Tulane players hit jumpers to give Tulane a 28-16 advantage with 7:30 left. Tulane led 33-22 with 5:07 left before Louisville slowly trimmed the Green Wave margin, cutting the lead to just 33-29 at the break.
Freshman Lakethia Hampton had seven points and a game-high 10 rebounds for Tulane, while Joseph added nine points, five rebounds and four assists.
Tulane was 11-of-22 from the floor in the second half, while holding Louisville to just 10-of-38 shooting (26.3 percent) in the second stanza. For the game Tulane hit 44.8 percent of its shots (26-of-58), while Louisville was just 20-of-64 (31.3 percent) from the floor.
The Green Wave held Louisville's Sara Nord, who entered the game leading the nation with 9.1 assists per game, to just two assists and two points on 1-of-6 shooting. Marju Sober led Louisville with 15 points, but that came on just 5-of-16 shooting, including a 1-of-5 effort from behind the three-point line. She was just 3-of-13 from the floor in the second half.
"This is a big relief. I can sleep now," Tulane junior Teana McKiver said. "We had fun out there and everything seemed to click. We want to take this momentum and run with it for the rest of the season. We have a lot of ground to make up."
Tulane returns to action next Friday, as the Green Wave travel to face Conference USA foe Houston. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. CST.
