Green Wave Close Out 2011 at UTPA
Dec 30, 2011 | Men's Basketball
Dec. 30, 2011
EDINBURG, Texas - Tulane's men's basketball team closes out the 2011 year and the non-conference portion of its schedule Saturday when they visit Texas-Pan American at 1 p.m. CT in the UTPA Field House.
The Green Wave (11-2) has been off since an 80-61 loss at No. 1 Syracuse on Dec. 22, while UTPA (4-11) fell at home to Texas-Arlington, 83-56, last night.
"The big challenge for us is having a lot of days without games," Tulane head coach Ed Conroy said. "Getting back in there and getting back into the rhythm of playing games again. This team has done a great job of focusing on ourselves and coming to play every night. We need to do that again Saturday and not have a letdown."
This will be the final non-conference game of the season for Tulane, who open Conference USA play Wednesday at UCF.
Kendall Timmons, who is just 17 points away from reaching the 1,000 career points milestone, leads the Green Wave with 13.5 points per game, while Ricky Tarrant is posting 12.5 points a contest. Josh Davis fell just below his double double average and sits at 11.4 points and 9.8 rebounds per outing.
The Broncs are led by senior guard Jared Maree with 14.9 points per a game. Junior guard Brandon Provost is the only other double figure scorer with 12.6 points an outing.
"UTPA can pose a great threat," Conroy said. "They just had a chance to beat St. John's and they really shoot the ball well from the perimeter and have a lot of different threats out there. We will have to be very good defending that part of the game."
This will be the fourth meeting between the two schools. Tulane has won the previous three meetings, including an 88-65 victory in Fogelman Arena last season. The Green Wave defeated UTPA in the only other game in Edinburg, 90-74, on Dec. 22, 1990.
Tulane will travel to UCF Wednesday to face the Knights at 6 p.m. CT in the C-USA opener.
PROBABLE STARTERS
Tulane (11-2)
G 2 Ricky Tarrant 6-1 180 Fr. 12.5 ppg 3.8 rpg 3.0 apg
G 5 Jordan Callahan 6-0 190 Jr. 10.6 ppg 2.5 rpg 2.3 apg
G 22 Kendall Timmons 6-5 210 Jr. 13.5 ppg 4.7 rpg 2.3 apg
F 00 Josh Davis 6-8 215 So. 11.4 ppg 9.8 rpg 2.4 apg
F 20 Kevin Thomas 6-9 225 So. 1.7 ppg 1.4 rpg 58.8 Fg%
UTPA (4-10)
G 1 Brandon Provost 6-3 Jr. 12.6 ppg 3.5 rpg 2.2 apg
G 11 Jared Maree 6-3 Sr. 14.9 ppg 3.5 rpg 1.4 apg
G 12 Nick Weiermiller 6-1 Sr. 4.3 ppg 2.8 rpg 3.9 apg
G 23 Jesus Delgado 6-4 Jr. 3.5 ppg 2.0 rpg 1.6 apg
F 13 Ruben Cabrera 6-7 Jr. 8.1 ppg 4.3 rpg 0.6 apg
