Men's Basketball Drops Road Finale at Memphis

Thursday, March 2

Memphis, TN

8 p.m. CT

Tulane University

5-24, 2-15American

Memphis

19-11, 9-8American

Tulane

Memphis

Men's Basketball Drops Road Finale at Memphis

Mar 2, 2017 | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

MEMPHIS – The Tulane men's basketball team suffered a 92-70 American Athletic Conference defeat at Memphis in its final road game of the season on Thursday evening at the FedEx Forum.

Melvin Frazier led four Green Wave players in double-figures with 16 points and eight rebounds, Cameron Reynolds added 15 points, Ray Ona Embo chipped in 13 and Malik Morgan fell just shy of a triple-double with 10 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.

Dedric Lawson led all scorers with 29 points on 11-for-15 shooting to complement eight boards, as his brother K.J. Lawson chipped in 13 points and had six grabs off the glass. Jeremiah Martin finished the night with 12 points, five rebounds and five assists.

After opening up a 7-4 lead to start the game, capped by a three-point play by Morgan with 17:15 on the clock, Memphis (19-11, 9-8 AAC) held the Green Wave scoreless for the next five and a half minutes and scored eight-straight points to take a five-point advantage, before surrendering five-straight points on a Reynolds jumper and a three-point play by Colin Slater tied the game at 12-all with 11:33 remaining in the first half.

Trailing by two, Reynolds knocked down a three, before a Tigers goaltend resulted in a quick 5-0 run to give Tulane (5-24, 2-15 AAC) a 19-16 lead at the seven-minute mark. Five-straight points by Memphis put the home team in front by a pair, but that would be the last time they would remain in front in the half, as the Green Wave responded with a 10-2 scoring run, highlighted by a pair of Blake Paul dunks and capped by five-straight points by Ona Embo to create his team's largest lead of the night, 31-23, with 3:17 left.

The Tigers drew within two, 34-32, with 1:28 to go, but Reynolds' third triple of the period put the Green Wave ahead by five before taking a 39-34 lead into the locker rooms at halftime. Despite starting the game 1-for-5 from the field and 0-for-3 beyond the arc, Reynolds made his final four shots, including his trio of threes, to finish with 13 points at the break.

Tulane shot 16-for-31 (.516) overall, 5-for-11 (.455) from deep and made both of its free throw tries while owning a 22-17 rebounding advantage, while Memphis went 12-for-32 (.375) on the floor, 3-for-10 (.300) from three and 7-for-12 (.583) at the line.

Ona Embo drained his second three of the night to extend the Green Wave's lead to 43-38 at the 18:08 mark, but the Tigers responded with a 7-0 run capped by a three-point play by Martin to pull in front by two. A defensive stop and back-to-back baskets by Frazier tied the game at 47 just under two minutes later, but a three-point play by Dedric Lawson put Memphis ahead, 50-47.

Trailing 51-49 with 15 minutes to play, the Tulane defense struggled to get stops as Memphis broke out on a 16-2 run over the next four-plus minutes to grow its margin to double digits, 67-51, through the halfway point of the second half.

The Tigers would finish the second half shooting 19-for-31 (.613) overall and 16-for-21 (.762) at the foul line while outscoring the Green Wave by 27 to finish off the 22-point win in their final home game of the season. Their 58 second-half points were the most allowed by the olive and blue this season.

Memphis outscored Tulane, 40-34, in the paint, 19-6 off turnovers and 30-14 off the bench, while the Green Wave owned a 19-12 margin in fast-break scoring and a 43-36 rebounding edge.

Tulane will host Senior Day at Avron B. Fogelman Arena on Sunday, March 5 in its regular-season finale against Tulsa. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. (CT) and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU with streaming available on the WatchESPN app.