Tulane University
Rice
Green Wave Fall to Rice on Buzzer Beater
Jan 14, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 14, 2012
NEW ORLEANS - Rice's Connor Frizzelle's 3-pointer as time expired ended a comeback effort by the Tulane men's basketball team and gave the Owls a 50-49 victory on Saturday night in Fogelman Arena.
The Green Wave (12-5, 0-3 C-USA) trailed by seven at halftime, but chipped away at the Rice (11-7, 2-1 C-USA) lead and eventually retook the advantage, 45-44, after a 3-pointer by Jordan Callahan with 1:03 left. Tulane held that lead until Frizzelle's only 3-pointer of the game went through the cylinder.
Tulane actually built a 47-44 lead with 0:27 remaining after a pair of free throws by Ricky Tarrant, but Rice's Arsalan Kazemi made a lay-up seven seconds later to cut the lead to one. Two more free throws by Tarrant with 0:07 left increased the Green Wave's lead back to three, 49-46. Frizzelle was then fouled by Trent Rogers with 0:04 remaining and hit one of his two free throw attempts. Rice secured the offensive rebound with 2.1 seconds left.
Ahmad Ibrahim inbounded the ball to Frizzelle on the left side where the senior knocked down the game-winner.
"I thought we did the right things in those final seconds, but Rice made the plays so credit them," Tulane head coach Ed Conroy said. "We certainly had our opportunities tonight and we didn't cash in on those. We needed to do a better job."
Tulane's defense held Rice, who came into the game shooting 48.5 percent from the field in the previous two conference game, to just 28.6 percent, including just nine of 33 in the second half.
The Green Wave hit only 36.6 percent from the floor as well, including just six of 20 in the opening 20 minutes. Tulane also managed just 14 of 28 from the free throw line, including four of 10 in the first half.
"You can look at both halves and think we really struggled to find offense when really we got to the free throw line 28 times," Conroy added. "Especially in the first half when we missed some front ends of some one and ones. I think we left eight or nine points on the board in the just the first half just at the free throw line. When you do that the outcome looks a lot different."
Tarrant, who played most of the second half with four fouls, led Tulane with 13 points. 11 of his 13 came in the final 5:58 of the game.
Callahan added 12 points with three 3-pointers and Josh Davis had 11 points, nine rebounds and four blocked shots. Callahan added seven boards and Tarrant has six.
Neither team led by more than seven with Rice's largest lead, 25-18, came at the break and Tulane held a five-point advantage early in the opening half. The game had eight lead changes and four ties. Rice won the battle on the boards, 40-35, including 13 on the offensive end that led to 13 second chance points.
Kazemi led the Owls with 12 points and 14 boards, while Frizzelle finished with nine points.
Tulane will hit the road Wednesday when they visit Tulsa on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT in the Reynolds Center.
GAME NOTES
- Kendall Timmons (ankle injury) saw his streak of 58 straight starts come to an end tonight. The last game he didn't start was at UCF on Feb. 13, 2010.
- Trent Rogers started for just the second time in his career. His other start also came at home against Rice in 2010.
- Josh Davis scored in double figures for the 12th game this season with his 11 points tonight.
- Jordan Callahan moved into sole possession of ninth-place on Tulane's career 3-pointers made list with his three tonight. He now has 114 for his career and trails eighth-place by six.
- Callahan reached double figures in scoring for the 11th game this season and the 41st game of his career with his 12 points tonight.
- Ricky Tarrant scored in double figures for the 12th game this season with his 13 points tonight.
