Green Wave Keeps Rolling With Win over SMU

Saturday, January 8

Fogelman Arena

1:00 PM

Tulane University

SMU

Jan 8, 2011 | Men's Basketball

Jan. 8, 2011

Box Score | Box Score in PDF Format

NEW ORLEANS - Tulane began to honor the first 100 seasons of basketball on Saturday afternoon and the celebration continued on the court, as the 2010-11 Green Wave team won for the sixth straight time with a 79-70 victory over Conference USA foe SMU in Fogelman Arena.

The victory for Tulane (12-3, 2-0 C-USA) extended the overall winning streak to six, the home court winning streak to nine and helped the Green Wave improve to 2-0 in league play for the first time since the 1996-97 season.

Kendal Timmons was a big reason for the Green Wave's success on Saturday. The sophomore forward poured in 26 points, including knocking down four 3-pointers. Senior guard Kris Richard added 18 points and seven rebounds in the victory, while Jordan Callahan had 13 points and five assists and David Booker had 10 points and seven boards.

"This was another sold night of sharing the ball well," Tulane head coach Ed Conroy said. "We had 18 assists and nine turnovers and I thought our guys played really well. I kept reminding our guys at each timeout how sharing the ball can lead to good things and once again they continued to listen and then go execute on the court."

Tulane and SMU (9-6, 0-1 C-USA) went back and forth in the opening 20 minutes of the game, trading the lead three times before the Green Wave took the lead for good on jumper by Richard broke a 26-26 tie with 3:15 remaining in the half.

The Mustangs had built as much as a four point lead in the first half and held a 21-17 lead with 8:31 left. Tulane's largest lead of the opening half was six after a 6-0 run gave the Green Wave a 32-26 lead with just over two minutes left.

Tulane led 35-30 at the break and SMU never got closer than that margin the rest of the way.

Timmons opened the scoring in the second half with two of his four 3-pointers that boosted the Green Wave's lead to double figures for the first time, 41-30. SMU was able to cut the deficit back to five four times in the second half, but Tulane answered each run. The Mustangs Mike Walker drained a 3-pointer with 4:08 remaining in the game to cut the Tulane lead back to five for the final time, but the Green Wave scored 12 of the next 15 points to shut the door once again.

SMU had one final surge, using an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 72-66 with 0:37 remaining, but Tulane knocked down seven of the last eight free throw attempts to secure the win.

Overall in the game, Tulane hit 20 of 21 free throws, the fifth best performance from the line in school history.

"Again we had several guys step up and make big shots and big plays," Tulane head coach Ed Conroy said. "Maybe the biggest play tonight came on the defensive end. We were able to get them turn the ball over 14 times and a lot of those were very timely."

The Green Wave also shot 46.3 percent from the floor in the game, including hitting 51.9 percent in the opening half. SMU shot 54.0 percent from the floor, including 54.2 percent in the first half.

Justin Haynes led the Mustangs with 21 points, while Papa Dia added 20 points and 10 rebounds. SMU won the battle of the boards, 28-27.

The era of 1905-49 was honored with a ceremony at halftime on Saturday. The All-Decade team of Alex Athas (1943-48), Mel Payton (1947-51), Warren Perkins (1947-49), Jim Riffey (1946-50) and Virgil Risner (1947-49) was selected by the fans vote on www.tulanegreenwave.com/100years. Fans can continue to vote for the remaining all-decade teams by visiting the site.

The Green Wave continue the mini home stand when they host UTEP in Conference USA action on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CST in Fogelman Arena. The decade of the 50's will be honored at the game as the celebration of the first 100 seasons of Tulane basketball continues.

GAME NOTES
- Tulane improved to 2-0 in Conference USA for the first time since the 1996-97 season when the Green Wave opened conference play with a 7-0 record.
- This also marks the best overall start since the 1994-95 team opened the season 13-2.
- Tulane's six straight wins marks the longest streak since a nine-game winning streak in the 1999-00 season.
- Tulane's 20-21 from the free throw line tied the fifth best performance in a game.
- Kendall Timmons recorded the 14th double figure scoring game of the season and the 29th of his career with his 26 points today. His 26 marks the fifth 20-plus point game of his career and the fourth this season.
- Kris Richard recorded his 11th double figure scoring game of the season and the 46th of his career with his 18 points today.
- Jordan Callahan scored in double figures in the 13th game of the season and 17th game in his career with his 13 points today.
- David Booker scored in double figures in the sixth game of the season and 12th game in his career with his 10 points today.