Men's Basketball Falls to Oklahoma 89-70 in Tire Pros Quarterfinal

Thursday, November 17

Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

6 p.m. CT

Tulane University

1-2

Oklahoma

2-0

Tulane

Oklahoma

Photo by: Parker Waters

Men's Basketball Falls to Oklahoma 89-70 in Tire Pros Quarterfinal

Nov 17, 2016 | Men's Basketball

Box Score

Reynolds led the way for the Green Wave

Printable Stats

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Redshirt junior guard Cameron Reynolds scored a team-high 19 points and drained four three-pointers, but Oklahoma overtook Tulane men's basketball in the second half Thursday with a 89-70 win in a Tire Pros Invitational quarterfinal.

Thursday's matchup was the fourth game of the 2016 Tire Pros Invitational. With the loss, Tulane (1-2) now faces Arizona State (2-1) on Friday in the second round. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. CT ESPNU and WatchESPN.

Reynolds finished 6-of-14 from the floor, including 4-of-9 from beyond the arc. He pulled down six rebounds in 35 minutes. Senior center Ryan Smith and redshirt senior guard Malik Morgan each chipped in 10 points. Smith grabbed six boards and blocked a career-best four shots.

Morgan dished out a team-best seven assists.

"We didn't do a good job handling all the pressure (Oklahoma) applied," said head coach Mike Dunleavy, Sr.. "I thought we did a better job in the second half with our spacing. However, we can't give away free points to a team like Oklahoma. Twenty-one points off turnovers are way too many to survive."

Tulane kept up with Oklahoma for most of the first half, going possession for possession with the Sooners. Oklahoma led by as many as eight in the first half, 18-10, but the Green Wave chipped away before taking their first lead (24-22) on Von Julien's triple with 7:41 to go until halftime.

Oklahoma would regain the lead and push its advantage up to seven with 90 seconds until the break. Down six, Julien sunk a half-court heave at the buzzer to cut Oklahoma's halftime lead to 38-35.

The Green Wave jumped on the Sooners quickly to start the second half, taking a 43-39 lead with 18:29 to play. From there, Oklahoma used a 17-3 run to open up a 10-point lead. Tulane was unable to recover, although the Wave managed to get to within seven twice with eight minutes to go.

The Wave shot 41.7 percent from the floor (25-of-60), including a 50-percent clip from three-point range (11-of-22). Tulane converted 9-of-17 chances from the free throw line for a 52.9 clip.

Following Friday's game, Tulane has a day off before closing out play in the Sunshine State on Sunday. After that, the Olive and Blue have a pair of road contests at Georgia Tech (Nov. 26 at 6:30 p.m. on ACC Network Extra) and at in-town rival New Orleans (Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. on Cox Sports) before returning to Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse on Dec. 2 to take on St. John's. Tipoff for that game is set for at 7 p.m. on ESPNews.

Season and single-game tickets can be purchased by by clicking here to purchase, calling 504-861-WAVE (9283) or visiting the Tulane Ticket Office, located on the first floor of the James W. Wilson, Jr. Center, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Follow Tulane men's basketball on social media at @GreenWaveMBB on Twitter, GreenWaveMBB on Facebook and GreenWaveMBB on Instagram.

Green Wave Notes:
• Tulane has played two of the four Final Four teams from a year ago in national runner-up North Carolina and Oklahoma.
• Redshirt senior G Malik Morgan's career high four blocks topped his previous high of two. Morgan also tied a career high with seven assists. He also had seven assists against Liberty on Nov. 29, 2015.
• Senior C Ryan Smith scored in double figures for his second-straight game, a first in his career.
• Redshirt junior G Cameron Reynolds tied a career high with three assists. He also had three assists against East Carolina on Feb. 24, 2016.
• Freshman G Ray Ona Embo dished out a career-high three assists.
• Sophomore F Sammis Reyes tied a career high with two rebounds, He also grabbed two boards against North Carolina on Nov. 11, 2016.