Jan. 10, 2010

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NEW ORLEANS - Freshman Olivia Grayson and junior Roshaunda Barnes posted career highs with 20 and 14 points, respectively, as the Tulane University women's basketball team defeated Conference USA foe Rice, 82-60, Sunday afternoon in Fogelman Arena.

The Green Wave used a 22-7 surge over the final nine minutes of the first half to break a 21-all tie and outscored the Owls 39-32 in the second half. With the win, Tulane improves to 12-3 on the year and evens its C-USA slate at 1-1. Rice, meanwhile, falls to 6-9 overall and 0-2 in league action.

"I think this says a lot about this team and just how strong we are," Tulane head women's basketball coach Lisa Stockton said. "If something happens and you lose your leading scorer, someone else has to step up. Today, several people stepped up.

"You obviously would rather be 2-0 (in conference play), but with what we've been faced with, I think we have to be happy with (being 1-1). We haven't fallen apart because we've lost players. If anything, we've bonded together even more. Hopefully this team will just get better and we'll be a team that is very good when it comes to March."

Grayson scored 14 of her points in the first half and finished the day 9-of-15 from the field to go along with five rebounds, one assist and a steal. Barnes, meanwhile, was 6-of-13 from the field and tied her career highs with eight assists and three blocks while pulling down six rebounds.

The duo were two of four Tulane players to post 10-plus points as junior forward Danielle Nunn had 19 and senior guard Indira Kaljo added 15. Sophomore Brett Benzio led the team on the glass with seven rebounds while junior forward Tiffany Aidoo had four steals.

As a team, Tulane hit 50 percent of its shots on Sunday (33-of-66) while the Green Wave defense held Rice to a 30.9 mark on 17-of-55 shooting. Despite once again being the shorter team on the floor, Tulane tied Rice for rebounds with 37 each and outscored the Owls in the paint, 40-10.

Rice scored 10 of the game's first 12 points to take a 10-2 lead less than three minutes into the ballgame before Tulane answered with a 10-2 rally of its own to tie the game with 13:26 to go before the break. The two teams traded the next 18 points to deadlock the contest at 21-all. From there, Grayson sandwiched a layup and a three-point play around a Kaljo drained a trey and Aidoo hit a basket to spark a 10-0 run to give the Wave a 31-21 advantage they would not relinquish.

The advantage swelled to as many as 19 in the first half at 43-24with 1:17 left in the stanza before Rice drained four consecutive free throws to make it a 43-28 contest at the break.

The Wave scored the first four points of the second half on a Grayson laup and a Nunn jumper to push the lead back to 19 at 47-28. Rice got a 3-pointer by Jessica Goswitz to spark a 12-3 rally to cut the deficit to 10 at 50-40 with 13:34 remaining on the clock but the Tulane defense held Rice without a field goal over the next 6:44.

While Rice hit just four free throws during the dry spell, Tulane connected on eight of its next 14 shots to open up a 25-point lead with less than three minutes to play. Rice cut the lead to 19 on a Megan Elliott layup with 1:39 on the clock but that was as close as the Owls would get the rest of the way as Tulane cruised to the 22-point victory.

"We scored 82 points without our top two scorers, and I think that says a lot of the potential of what this team can be," Stockton said. "We played a very different game than the one we played on Friday and did well with it."

Morgan Mayse and Jackie Stanely tied for the Rice scoring lead with 11 points each, and Stanley led all players with 11 rebounds to finish the game with a double-double. D'Frantz Smart and Amenmope McKinney each had three assists for the Owls' cause and McKinney tied Aidoo for game-high steal honors with four.

The Green Wave return to action on Friday, Jan. 15, when they travel to Tulsa, Okla., to take on the Tulsa Golden Hurricane at 7 p.m. in the Reynolds Center. That game will be the first of two road games for Tulane as the Wave will travel to Dallas on Sunday for a 2 p.m. showdown with SMU.

Tulane's next home game is slated for Saturday, Jan. 23, when the Wave play host to Southern Miss at 2 p.m. in Fogelman Arena. For ticket information, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 861-WAVE.

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