Tulane University
17-8, 8-5
SMU
11-13, 6-7
Women's Hoops Delivers a 76-64 Win vs. SMU
Feb 14, 2016 | Women's Basketball
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NEW ORLEANS - The Tulane women's basketball team (17-8, 8-5) showed the home crowd some love on Valentine's Day, earning a 76-64 win over SMU (11-13, 6-7), completing the regular season sweep vs. the Mustangs in the process. Kolby Morgan, Leslie Vorpahl and Tierra Jones all nearly notched a double-double on Sunday, as the trio combined for 44 points and 25 rebounds.
"I am really pleased with the team effort," Tulane women's basketball head coach Lisa Stockton stated. "I thought we were really sharp coming out. Defensively, we took a lot away from them. We hit the boards really hard. Last time we didn't shoot too well against them, so it was good to see us get really good shots the whole game."
Up 17-12 just a few seconds into the second quarter, the Green Wave recorded an 8-0 run over the next two minutes to establish a double-digit lead. Jones ended the half on a high note, scoring seven of the team's final 10 points to push the Wave's lead to 35-22 at the break.
Flash ahead to the 8:39 mark in the third quarter when junior guard Courtnie Latham connected on a three-point shot, marking an impressive 6-for-7 start from beyond the arc for the Wave, as the squad ultimately finished with a season high tying nine treys on 16 attempts.
Tulane reached its largest lead of the game at 6:56 in the third after a Chinwe Duru layup gave the Green Wave a 21-point lead at 44-23. Furthermore, Morgan recorded her best quarter in the third, in which she tallied 10 of the team's 21 points, extending the Wave's lead to 56-39 to begin the fourth.
Up 65-45 with five minutes left in the game, SMU tried to rally with a 14-4 run, cutting the deficit to 10 points. However, Tulane iced the game by getting it done from the free-throw line, where Jones and Morgan combined for the squad's final seven points and the 76-64 victory.
Morgan finished with 24 points on 7-of-15 shooting to go along with her eight rebounds, four steals, two blocks and two assists. Thus, in the last three games, Morgan has amassed a total of 74 points as she garnered her eighth 20+ scoring performance on the season.
Meanwhile, Vorpahl once again flirted with the triple-double for the third time this season, collecting eight points, a team-leading nine rebounds and 10 assists, with the latter being her fourth double-digit assist game this year. Finally, Jones rounds out the double-figure scoring with 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting and eight rebounds.
Team wise, Tulane tied its season high with 20 assists and out-shot SMU 45.8 percent to their 32.4 percent.
"We're fighting every game and this afternoon we made some improvement," Stockton added. "We felt like we needed to get some defensive boards and we did just that. When the game was still in question, we gave them just a one-and-done, so that was good to see."
Up next, the Olive and Blue hit the road to Orlando to complete its season series with UCF on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 6 p.m. CT. Tulane previously knocked off the Knights at home by the score of 75-54 on Jan. 10.
