Tulane University
14-16, 5-13
UCF
18-12, 9-9
Men’s Basketball Falls in Regular Season Finale at UCF, 60-51
Mar 4, 2018 | Men's Basketball
ORLANDO - The Tulane men's basketball team dropped its regular season finale at UCF, 60-51, in American Athletic Conference action Sunday afternoon at CFE Arena.
Seeded 10th in the 2018 American Athletic Conference Championship, Tulane (14-16, 5-13 AAC) will remain in Orlando to take on the No. 7 seed, Temple (16-14, 8-10 AAC), in the first round on Thursday, March 8 at the Amway Center. Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. (CT) and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.
Melvin Frazier posted his fifth double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 rebounds, Ray Ona Embo compiled 11 points, five rebounds and four assists and Jordan Cornish added 10 points. Samir Sehic contributed six points, eight rebounds and a career-high four steals off the bench for the Green Wave.
Cameron Reynolds moved from No. 16 to No. 14 on the Wave's all-time scoring list, passing Al Andrews (1964-67) and John Sutter (1968-71) to move his career total to 1,348 points. He also became just the 18th player in program history to eclipse 600 rebounds and is just the 14th player to achieve 1,000 points and 600 rebounds.
B.J. Taylor led all players with 19 points and six rebounds, while A.J. Davis put up 11 points and six boards. Dayon Griffin added 13 points and five rebounds in reserve for the Knights.
The two sides exchanged baskets early on, before Tulane grabbed its first lead of the game, 7-4, on a 3-pointer by Frazier just under three minutes into the action. UCF (18-12, 9-9 AAC) reclaimed the lead and tried pulling away but a Frazier dunk with 13:48 left tied the game at nine and a Blake Paul one-handed flush evened the score at 11-all, but the Knights scored five straight points from that moment, forcing the Green Wave to call its first timeout with 11:17 left.
The Wave got back within four points, but fell behind by as many as seven on two occasions, the last time on a UCF free throw in the final minute to make it 27-20 - an advantage the Knights took into the locker room at halftime.
Tulane shot 8-for-24 (.333) from the field, 2-for-8 (.250) at the 3-point line and made two of four free throws while owning a 19-15 rebounding advantage in the first half, while UCF went 8-for-23 (.348) on the floor, 3-for-10 (.300) from outside, 8-for-10 (.800) at the foul stripe and outscored the Green Wave, 15-4, off turnovers and 7-2 on second chances.
UCF jumped out to its first double-digit lead of the afternoon, 32-22, on a three-point play by Davis just 69 seconds into the second half, but the Wave went on an 8-2 scoring run, capped by a Frazier layup with 14:53 left to pull within four.
Frazier continued to attack the Knights' interior and scored a layup to pull within a pair, 36-34, with 12:33 to go, before Tulane tied the game at 38 on a drive to the right and a two-handed flush by Ona Embo with 10:50 remaining. UCF held onto the lead for the subsequent three and a half minutes, but an Ona Embo trey with 7:20 remaining gave the Green Wave the lead, 43-42.
Both teams traded baskets for the next four-plus minutes, until three consecutive baskets including a 3-pointer by Cornish that was bookended by a pair of Sehic layups tied the game at 50 with just three minutes to go.
UCF created several turnovers down the stretch and closed the game on a 10-1 run to hold on for the nine-point victory.
Tulane finished the night shooting 19-for-54 (.352) overall, 4-for-14 (.286) beyond the arc and 9-for-16 (.563) at the free throw line, while UCF shot 19-for-48 (.396) from the field, 5-for-16 (.313) from outside and 17-for-24 (.708) at the charity stripe.
The Green Wave owned a 40-32 rebounding advantage, but were outscored by the Knights, 26-24, in the paint, 20-11 off turnovers and 21-11 off the bench.
