Final Stats

March 6, 2004

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Freshman Vincent Camper turned in the best game of his collegiate career and Tulane University played 29 minutes of inspired basketball, however, one 11-minute stretch foiled the Green Wave's chances of upsetting Charlotte in Conference USA men's basketball action on Saturday afternoon at Halton Arena. The 49ers, who clinched a share of the regular-season league title with the victory, defeated the Green Wave, 79-65.

Tulane (11-16, 4-12 C-USA) had already qualified for next week's Conference USA Tournament to be played in Cincinnati and, as the 12th seed, will have a rematch with the 49ers. The Green Wave will play on Wednesday at a time to be determined.

Charlotte (20-7, 12-4) meanwhile, earned no benefits from tying for the league title. Despite being tied with four other teams (DePaul, Cincinnati, Memphis, UAB), the 49ers fall all the way to the fifth seed in the tournament due to various tiebreakers.

Throwing out the final 11 minutes of the first half on Saturday, Tulane outscored Charlotte, 57-44. However, after building a 23-9 lead with 11 minutes to go, the Green Wave went cold, missing eight of 10 shots and turning the ball over 13 times to close the half. Charlotte outscored the Wave 35-8 over that stretch and roared all the way back to take a 44-31 lead at the break.

Other than that stretch of the game, Tulane had just three turnovers for a total of 16 on the night. Charlotte turned the ball over 13 times.

"I liked the way we came out; we were ready to play and ready to defend," Tulane coach Shawn Finney said. "But we still can not maintain offensive consistency for 40 minutes. We played 30 minutes for tonight, but in this league, that is not going to be enough."

The Green Wave opened the second half strong behind the efforts of Camper, who made his first start in eight games. After Marcus Kinzer scored on a short jumper, Camper converted a three-point play, scored on a scoop in the lane and hit a pair of free throws following an offensive rebound to pull the Wave within five at 47-42 with 16:04 to go.

"Vincent Camper had a shot at starting earlier in the year," Finney said. "And he earned another shot in our last game and from his performance in practice. He brings a lot of toughness and fearlessness to our team. He gives it full effort at all times and we saw a lot of what type of player he will be for us in the future."

Charlotte's Curtis Withers scored in the paint and Camper came back with another drive to keep the difference at five, but the 49ers used the inside-outside game to slowly build their advantage. Withers scored again inside, followed by seven-footer Martin Iti slamming home a hoop, then Brendan Plavich hit a pair of deep three-pointers and the Wave deficit was back to 10 at 58-48 with 11:51 to go.

A George Brown putback made it an eight-point game, but Iti scored six points to ignite a 12-5 run which left Tulane trailing by 16 at 71-55 at the six-minute mark.

However, Charlotte's defense was again too much, forcing five straight Wave misses as time ticked away. When Wayne Tinsley broke the snide for Tulane with a hard drive, the scored was 73-58 with just over two minutes remaining. The 49ers closed the game out from the free-throw line.

For the game, Tulane hit 41.7 percent (25-of-60) of its shots while holding Charlotte to 40.9 percent (27-of-66) shooting. The Green Wave was outdone on the glass by a 45-34 margin, allowing 21 offensive rebounds. The Wave continued its strong shooting from the line, burying 76.9 percent (10-of-13) of its foul shots. Charlotte hit 72 percent (18-of-25) from the line.