Tulane University
22-9
Tulsa
17-13
Women's Hoops Advances with 71-53 Win over Tulsa
Mar 7, 2015 | Women's Basketball
Box Score | Printable Box|Press Conference
UNCASVILLE, Conn. - The Tulane women's basketball team (22-9) enacted some revenge against Tulsa (17-13) in Saturday's quarterfinal matchup of the American Athletic Conference Tournament. The Green Wave took the rubber match, 71-53, to advance to Sunday's semifinal vs the No. 2 seed, South Florida (25-6).
"Our success this year has been when our defense was stubborn and aggressive," Tulane head coach Lisa Stockton said. We had 12 steals and forced 16 turnovers at the break, so we then had a lot of energy that continued into the second half."
Tulane got up early, with a 12-7 lead at the 12:44 mark, but the Green Wave offense hit a cold stretch, missing on their next seven shots. Thus, Tulsa capitalized with a 13-0 run over a five minute stand to claim a 20-12 lead.
Coming out of a timeout at the 7:27 mark, a rejuvenated Green Wave finished the first half on a 19-6 scoring stretch to take a 31-26 lead into half. The Olive and Blue connected on seven of their next ten shots from the field, which featured treys from Jamie Kaplan and Leslie Vorpahl, as the Wave converted 5-of-8 from beyond the arc.
Tulane continued to wreak havoc on both ends of the court, starting the second half on a 10-2 run to go up 41-28. The Green Wave's shots from beyond the arc continued to fall, as Tulane sunk five more treys in the second half to finish the game 10-of-17 (58.8 percent) - a new season high in made three-pointers.
Furthermore, for the second straight night, nine different players from Tulane registered points, led by the 17-point effort by Vorpahl, who tied her career high for made three-pointers with a 4-for-6 performance.
Kolby Morgan followed suit with her 19th game in double figures, scoring 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting. In addition, Kaplan came one point shy of tying her season high with 13 points, but did set a new season best with three treys (3-5). Finally, Courtnie Latham rounded out the Green Wave in double figures with 11 points on her second consecutive night going 4-for-8 from the floor.
Defensively, Tulane forced 27 Tulsa turnovers, a new season high for the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa had entered tonight's game with a previous season high of 23, set twice by Tulane; thus, through three games this year, Tulane forced 73 Tulsa turnovers while gathering 43 steals.
"I think our team knew how we had to play," Stockton added. "We really just talked about the effort and the things we needed to do well. They were pretty motivated tonight."
The Green Wave and Bulls will tip-off on Sunday at 6:30 p.m. CT on ESPNU. To reach Monday's championship game, the Wave will have to knock off USF for the first time in 2015, after being swept in the regular season.
For all tournament updates, be sure to visit TulaneGreenWave.com and the conference website at TheAmerican.org.
