Men's Basketball
Rice's Strong Second Half Too Much for Green Wave
Owls shoot 61.9 percent in second half to come away with 71-61 victory over Green Wave
 

 

  
 

Feb. 2, 2011

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NEW ORLEANS - Tulane couldn't keep history rolling on Wednesday night as Rice snapped the Green Wave men's basketball team's eight-game winning streak over the Owls with a 71-61 Conference USA victory at Fogelman Arena.

Tulane (12-9, 2-6 C-USA) couldn't hold off a hot shooting Rice (11-11, 3-5 C-USA) in the second half. With the score tied at halftime, 31-31, the Owls proceeded to win the second half behind a solid shooting performance, going 13-21 from the floor and 11 of 12 from the free throw line in the half to win for the third time in four games.

The Green Wave led for much of the first half and held a 31-25 lead with 1:06 remaining in the half, but Rice's Connor Frizzelle knocked down a pair of free throws, Tamir Jackson hit a jumper and Arsalan Kazemi had a steal and jumper with one second remaining to tie the score at 31.

"Early on there were moments in this game where we did a lot of good things," Tulane head coach Ed Conroy said. "Overall throughout the game we have to do a better job of taking care of the ball and playing smarter going back to the end of the first half and down the stretch. Obviously we've got to go back to work and we will."

Rice opened the second half by scoring the first seven points for a combined 13-0 run and took a 38-31 lead less than two minutes into the half.

Tulane then used an 8-0 of their own to retake the lead, 39-38, with 16:25 remaining and held the lead for much of the next seven minutes before Rice took the lead for good, 51-50, on a pair of Kazemi free throws.

One of the four 3-pointers Johnny Mayhane hit for Tulane was able to tie the game one final time with 7:32 left, but Rice proceeded to go on a 9-2 run to take a 62-55 lead with 4:37 left in the game.

The Green Wave was able to cut the deficit down to three on a 3-pointer by Jordan Callahan with 4:06 on the clock, but a 5-0 run by Riced capped by a Frizzelle 3-pointer put the game away.

Frizzelle knocked down five 3-pointers on the evening for a career-high 25 points. Jackson finished with 20 points for the Owls as well and Kazemi collected another double double with 11 points and 19 rebounds.

"You got to give a lot of credit to Rice tonight," Conroy said. "And you have to credit their guards. 45 points between Jackson and Frizzelle is just not going to get it done. Our guys worked awfully hard on the defensive end and did a lot of good things. We got them to the end of the shot clock but then we couldn't guard them one-on-one out front. Give credit to Rice for coming in and exploiting that on us. Our guys have to step up and do better."

Timmons led Tulane with 21 points and added seven rebounds. Mayhane and David Booker each added 12 points, while Kris Richard pulled down 11 rebounds. Callahan finished the game with seven points and six assists to snap his consecutive double figure scoring streak at 15 games.

As a team, Tulane shot 38.9 percent from the floor and hit just five of 23 3-pointers. The Green Wave also connected on just 14 of 23 free throws.

Rice finished the game with a 46.9 shooting percentage from the floor and hit seven of 16 3-pointers. The Owls also hit 18 of 20 shots from the free throw line.

The celebration of the first 100 Seasons of Tulane basketball continued by honoring the All-Decade team from the 1970's at halftime on Wednesday. The All-Decade team of Jeff Cummings (1976-77), Pierre Gaudin (1975-78), Phil Hicks (1974-76), John Sutter (1969-71) and Harold Sylvester (1969-71) was selected by the fans vote on www.tulanegreenwave.com/100years. Fans can continue to vote for the remaining all-decade teams by visiting the site.

Tulane will complete the two-game conference home stand on Saturday when UAB visits Fogelman Arena at 2 p.m. CST.

Game Notes
- Kendall Timmons scored in double figures in the 20th game of the season and 35th game in his career with his 21 points tonight. It also marks his 19th straight double figure scoring game.
- David Booker scored in double figures in the ninth game of the season and 15th game in his career with his 12 points tonight.
- Kris Richard grabbed 11 rebounds tonight, the second double digit rebound game of the season and the third of his career.
- Johnny Mayhane scored in double figures in the second game of the season and the seventh game of his career with his 12 points tonight. His four 3-pointers ties his career-high for threes in a game as well.
- Tulane's eight game winning streak over Rice came to an end tonight.

 

 

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