Jan. 4, 2010

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HAMMOND, La. - Senior guard Chassity Brown tied a career high with 23 points and junior guard Roshaunda Barnes handed out a career-best eight assists as the Tulane University women's basketball team defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 81-45, Monday evening at the University Center.

Brown connected on 7-of-11 shots from the field, including a 5-of-6 showing from beyond the 3-point arc, and Tulane's 36-point margin of victory was the highest of the season, surpassing the 86-52 win over Louisiana-Monroe in the season opener on Nov. 13 in Fogelman Arena. With the win, the Green Wave extend their winning streak to nine in a row and improve to 11-2 on the year. Southeastern Louisiana, meanwhile, fall to 6-7.

"She played great," Tulane head women's basketball coach Lisa Stockton said of her senior captain. "She looked so relaxed on her shots and is really playing the way a senior needs to play. I'm very proud of her performance.

"I thought our press was effective. We have to extend the court a little bit just so it's not a half court game. It's not just for steals. We just have to make sure they can't get in there and have time to pick apart our smaller players in there. We got some steals, we got some offense from our defense and we shot the ball well."

Brown was one of three Tulane players to post double-digit scoring totals, joining junior forward Danielle Nunn and freshman guard Olivia Grayson with 15 and 12, respectively. Barnes led the team in rebounding, tying a career high with seven and had four of Tulane's 12 steals on the night.

As a team, the Green Wave hit 50 percent of their shots (30-of-60), including a 55.2 showing in the second half (16-of-29). Despite playing a five-guard lineup for the third consecutive game, Tulane outscored the Lions in the paint, 24-2. The Green Wave defense, meanwhile, held Southeastern Louisiana to a 21.3 percent shooting night, holding the Lions to just 10 field goals in 47 tries.

In addition, the Tulane defense forced SLU into 23 turnovers, which the offense was able to convert into 25 points. The Wave also out-rebounded Southeastern Louisiana, 39-34, including a 22-15 margin after halftime.

"One of the things we wanted to focus on was rebounding," Stockton said. "We did out-rebound them and they are a good rebounding team. We really worked hard on that this week and made it a point of emphasis. I thought we did a good job."

The Green Wave came out and established control early as Brown and junior forward Tiffany Aidoo sandwiched 3-pointers around a Nunn layup and forced Southeastern to call an early timeout with the score 10-2 just 2:31 into the ballgame. A pair of free throws by Rashima Jenkins cut the Tulane lead to six before the Green Wave used an 8-0 run to make it a 14-point ballgame

Tulane's offense went nearly eight minutes without a basket but the defense was able to hold Southeastern Louisiana at bay. The two teams traded baskets with around five minutes to play before the break but a Nunn jumper sparked a 12-0 Green Wave run to make it 34-11 with 2:18 on the clock. The Lions' Kim Edmonson canned a pair of 3-pointers and sank a pair of free throws the rest of the way and Tulane went into the locker room on top by 15 at 34-19.

The Wave got those points back early in the second stanza as Brown drained a trey 1:12 into the period and Grayson hit a jumper 22 seconds later to get the lead back to 20 and the rout was on. The advantage swelled to 30 at 60-30 with 9:27 to go in regulation on a Brown jumper and the closest Southeastern Louisiana would get the rest of the day was 29 at 71-42 with 3:47 left to play.

Kim Edmonson was the lone Southeastern Louisiana player to post a double-digit point total, hitting five 3-pointers and a pair of free throws for a team-best 17 points. Quantae Thomas led all players with nine rebounds.

"It was good to see a lot of different people play," Stockton said. "Tyria Snow is getting back slowly with that knee and I thought she played well tonight. She was real aggressive and did some good things. It's a small bench and we're going to need everybody."

The Green Wave return to action on Friday, Jan. 8, when they open the Conference USA portion of their schedule against Houston at 7 p.m. in Fogelman Arena. The game is the first of two home league contests for Tulane over the weekend as the Green Wave will play host to Rice on Sunday, Jan. 10, with tipoff of that game slated for 1 p.m. For ticket information to those games, as well as any future Green Wave event, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 861-WAVE.

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