Tulane University
Tulsa
Poor Second Half Plagues Green Wave at Tulsa
Jan 18, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Jan. 18, 2012
TULSA, Okla. - It was a tale of two halves for the Tulane men's basketball team Wednesday night against Tulsa, as the Green Wave couldn't hold onto a first-half lead and fell, 60-56, to the Golden Hurricane at the Donald W. Reynolds Center.
The Green Wave (12-6, 0-4 C-USA) led 32-25 at the end of the first half after hitting 13 of 23 shots (56.5 percent) in the opening 20 minutes, but made just six of 25 attempts (24.0 percent) in the second half and scored 24 points. Meanwhile, Tulsa (10-9, 3-2 C-USA) managed just 25 first-half points, but posted 35 in the second half to pull off the come-from-behind victory, their third straight win.
"I loved some of the things our guys did tonight," Tulane coach Ed Conroy said. "We came on the road and controlled the tempo for a large part of this game and really did some smart things. We got some scores early in the clock and late in the clock and kept them off balance."
Tulane used a 9-0 midway through the first half to take control of the game. After Tulsa held just its second lead, 16-15, on a dunk by Kodi Maduka with 9:54 left, Jordan Callahan knocked down a jumper, Ricky Tarrant hit one of his four 3-pointers, Tre Drye dunked and Callahan added a lay-up to give the Green Wave a 24-16 lead with 5:56 remaining in the half.
The teams basically traded baskets over the next five minutes before Josh Davis hit a 3-pointer to put Tulane up nine, 32-23, with 0:23 left. A couple of free throws in the final seconds of the half by Tulsa's Eric McClellan made the halftime score, 32-25.
Tulane missed its first five field goal attempts of the second half and over the first five minutes of the half the Green Wave only got a 3-pointer and a free throw from Tarrant and saw the lead dwindle to just three, 36-33.
Tarrant hit another 3-pointer to put Tulane back up six with 13:37 on the clock, but Tulsa used an 8-0 run over the next two and half minutes to retake the lead, one they would hold the remainder of the game.
Trent Rogers hit a lay-up with 9:10 remaining to tie the score at 43-43, but Tulane wouldn't get another field goal until less than a minute remaining and Tulsa expanded its lead to double figures, 54-44, with 5:35 left. The Green Wave did hit seven of eight free throw attempts down the stretch and held Tulsa scoreless for over three minutes to cut the deficit to four, 54-50, with 2:07 remaining, but Tulane would not get any closer.
Tarrant led the Green Wave with 15 points, while Callahan had 14 and Davis added 10. Tulane did outrebound Tulsa, 31-29, led by Tre Drye's career-best 10. Callahan added five boards.
Jordan Clarkson led Tulsa with a game-high 16 points, while Steven Idlet came off the bench to add 13 points and five of the Golden Hurricane's 12 blocked shots. Scottie Haralson had 12 points as well and Maduka finished with seven points, five rebounds and five blocks.
"Credit Tulsa. Coach had them well prepared and they did a good job," said Ed Conroy. "We did play very hard and I thought we did a lot of good things, but the one thing that jumped up and bit us is some bad shots. We challenged them at the rim too many times and their block shot totals reflected that."
Tulane will look to snap its four-game losing skid Saturday when they host UTEP in Fogelman Arena at 7 p.m. CT.
GAME NOTES
- Freshman forward Lotanna Nwogbo started tonight's game for the first start of his career.
- Jordan Callahan reached double figures in scoring for the 12th game this season and the 42nd game of his career with his 14 points tonight.
- Ricky Tarrant scored in double figures for the 13th game this season with his 15 points tonight.
- Josh Davis scored in double figures for the 13th game this season with his 10 points tonight.
- Tre Drye pulled down a career-best 10 rebounds in tonight's game.
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