Final Stats

March 10, 2004

CINCINNATI - Charlotte used a multi-faceted offense and tough defense to keep Tulane on its heels throughout the first round of the Conference USA Men's Basketball Championship, defeating the Green Wave 78-48 on Wednesday afternoon at U.S. Bank Arena.

Tulane, the 12th seed in the tournament, finishes the season 11-17, while Charlotte improves to 21-7. The 49ers tied for the regular season league championship with four other teams, however, tiebreaker procedures dropped them to the fifth seed.

Tulane struggled from the start, missing its first five shots and turning the ball over three times before scoring its first points on a Wayne Tinsley jumper at the 16:33 mark to trail 8-2.

Charlotte pushed its advantage to 12-2 before a Marcus Kinzer three-pointer sparked an 8-0 Wave run to make it 12-10 with 13:43 to go. However, a three-point play by Charlotte's Demon Brown ignited a 12-0 and a 21-5 run which built Tulane's first-half deficit as high as 18.

Tulane trailed 35-22 at the break after turning the ball over 13 times and hitting just eight-of-26 shots (30.8 percent). The 49ers connected on 14-of-26 (38.9 percent) of their shots and controlled the glass by a 28-16 margin.

In the second-half, Charlotte controlled the action completely, using a 14-0 run midway through the half to build a 68-31 advantage and put the game away.

"They came out and forced some turnovers and some misses," Tulane coach Shawn Finney said. "They got us on our heels right from the start and we didn't recover."

Tulane, which had no players in double figures for the first time this year, was led by Kinzer and freshman Vincent Camper, who each scored nine points. Freshman Dan Fiztgerald added eight points. Charlotte had five players in double figures; big man Curtis Withers, a first-team all-conference selection had his league-leading 16th double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. The 49ers buried eight three-pointers while also out-scoring the Wave, 45-20, in the paint.

For the game, Tulane shot a season-low 27.1 percent (16-of-59) from the field, while Charlotte hit at a 44.8 percent clip (30-of-67). The Green Wave was out-rebounded 50-39 and committed 21 turnovers while forcing 14 turnovers.

"We're a young team," Finney said. "We have battled all year and played hard all year, in every game, but tonight was our first clunker."

Tulane had four freshmen play significant minutes this season, leading the league with 1,630 minutes played by rookies. In addition, just one starter, four-year starter Wayne Tinsley, graduates. Scheduled to return next year is 80 percent of the Green Wave's scoring and 82 percent of its rebounding. Tulane lost five seniors to graduation last year. The Wave will also welcome back seven-footer Ivan Pjevcevic, who missed the season with a knee injury. Four recruits have already been signed to join the program in the fall as well.

"It is a disappointing way to end the season," Finney said. "But we had a lot of positives this year and I have plenty of reasons for optimism for next year. We have learned from our mistakes all year and this adversity will only help us find success in the future."