Tulane University
UAB
Tarrant's 33 Not Enough in Loss at UAB
Feb 18, 2012 | Men's Basketball
Feb. 18, 2012
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Ricky Tarrant matched his career-high with 33 points, including 29 in the second half in front of his home-town crowd, but it was not enough as the Tulane men's basketball team fell to UAB, 81-73, on Saturday night in Bartow Arena.
Tarrant and the Green Wave (15-11. 3-9 C-USA trailed by as many 17 points in the second half, 44-27, with 15:39 remaining, but pulled within three, 73-70, with 0:39 left. The Pleasant Grove, Ala., native scored all of his second half points in the final 13:20 of the contest.
"This team showed a lot of fight and a lot of heart tonight," Tulane head coach Ed Conroy said. "I'm obviously disappointed with the way we played in the first four minutes of the first half and maybe the first six of seven of the second half. Credit UAB. We made a heck of run at them and those guys on our side kept making play after play after play."
UAB (12-14, 7-6 C-USA) took the lead for good early in the first half, 9-7, on a 3-pointer by Preston Purifoy. The Blazers built as much as a 12-point lead in the opening 20 minutes before Tulane chipped away by closing the half on a 15-6 run that made the score 30-27 at the break.
The final three points of the half for the Green Wave came from the hands of Lotanna Nwogbo as he heaved a half-court shot as the clock expired and banked it off the glass into the hoop. The freshman finished the game with five points.
UAB opened the second half by scoring the first 14 points to take their 17-point lead. Tulane got on the board in the second with a lay-up by Josh Davis at the 15:20 mark. The Blazers maintained a double digit lead until another lay-up by Davis to cut the deficit to 59-51 with 5:51 remaining. That capped a 12-5 run that included three 3-pointers by Tarrant.
Tarrant knocked down a total of five 3-pointers in the game, all in the second half and also hit 10 of 11 free throws, including all 10 of his second-half attempts.
After the lead was dwindled to three, UAB closed the game by scoring eight of the last 10 points, including all six free throw attempts.
The Blazers scored 34 points at the free throw in the game and hit 24 of 27 in the second half. They finished the game hitting 82.9 percent from the line to go with their 20 of 50 from the floor.
Tulane shot 43.1 percent from the floor, including 13 of 26 in the second half. The Green Wave also connected on nine of 18 3-pointers and 20 of 25 free throws.
Davis finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds for his 11th double double of the season for Tulane, while Jordan Callahan added 11 points with a pair of 3-pointers.
Cameron Moore, the preseason C-USA Player of the Year led UAB with 25 points and 11 rebounds. Purifoy added 19 points, including five 3-pointers, and Jordan Swing had 16 points.
The Blazers outrebounded Tulane, 38-27, and had 12 offensive boards that led to 17 second chance points.
Tulane will complete a two-game road swing on Wednesday in Dallas when they take on SMU in Moody Coliseum at 7 p.m. CT.
GAME NOTES
- Tulane donned the power blue uniforms for the second time this season. The other game was at Syracuse on Dec. 22.
- Freshman Ricky Tarrant scored in double figures for the 21st game this season with his 33 points tonight. His 20-plus point performance marks his seventh of the season.
- Tarrant scored 29 second-half points on his way to matching his career-high of 33 points tonight.
- Jordan Callahan reached double figures in scoring for the 19th game this season and the 49th game of his career with his 11 points tonight.
- Josh Davis reached double figures in the scoring column for the 17th game this season with his 15 points tonight.
- Davis also pulled down 11 rebounds for his 11th double double this season.
