Jan. 23, 2010

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NEW ORLEANS - Senior guard Chassity Brown and junior forward Danielle Nunn combined for 43 points, 11 rebounds and eight steals as the Tulane University women's basketball defeated Conference USA foe Southern Miss, 80-63, Saturday afternoon at Fogelman Arena.

Tulane score eight of the game's first 10 points and led for all but 31 seconds of the 40-minute ballgame and overcame a monster night by Golden Eagle forward Pauline Love, who finished with 25 points and 17 rebounds. The difference in the game, however, was the Green Wave defense, which recorded 14 steals and forced 26 turnovers. With the win, Tulane improves to 14-4 on the year and 3-2 in C-USA action. Southern Miss, meanwhile, falls to 4-15 overall and 0-6 in league play.

"This was a good, hard-fought win for us," Tulane head women's basketball coach Lisa Stockton said. "Pauline Love is a tremendous player. Tiffany (Aidoo) and Janique (Kautsky) did a great job of trying to get in the right positions to double her. Toward the end of the game, she just got lose. We had her contained until then and once she got loose, we had to change our defense.

Nunn led the Green Wave with 22 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the field, while Brown finished with 21 points after connecting on 7-of-16 shots - including three 3-pointers - and going 4-of-7 from the free throw line. Saturday's game marked the first time Tulane had a pair of players finish with 20-plus points since Dec. 17, 2008, when Megan Valicevic and Indira Kaljo each had 21 in a 108-66 win at Nicholls State.

Nunn and Brown were two of four Tulane players to finish with double-digit scoring totals as Tiffany Aidoo had 14 and Olivia Grayson added 10. In addition to her scoring total, Brown also chipped in with eight rebounds, six assists and six steals.

Despite playing without sophomore center Brett Benzio and forward Brittany Lindsey, the Green Wave tied Southern Miss in rebound with 33 each and outscored the Golden Eagles in the paint, 32-24. Southern Miss, which entered the ballgame averaging nearly 14 offensive rebounds a game, had 10 boards on the offensive glass which turned into just eight second-chance points.

"I felt the big stat was that at halftime, they had four offensive rebounds," Stockton said. "They shot the ball pretty well in the first half, but four offensive rebounds for this team is a really good number for us to hold them to. They ended up with 10, but some of those were at the end when they were throwing up those 3s and they were bouncing out wide.

"Overall, the rebounding was very good. We just have to get position and fight. We got a few over-the-back calls today, which was great. That's all we can do."

Brown opened the game's scoring with a 3-pointer 55 seconds into the contest and Nunn made it 5-0 with a layup 24 seconds later. Southern Miss turned an 8-2 deficit into a 9-8 lead with a 7-0 rally before a Grayson trey with 13:28 in the half put Tulane back on top by a deuce. The Golden Eagles' Tanesha Washington tied the game at 11-all with a jumper with 13:04 remaining before the break, but a Nunn basket 17 second later gave the Green Wave a 13-11 advantage they would not relinquish.

Tulane built its lead to as many as 13 in the first half on an Aidoo basket plus an and-one free throw to make it 34-21 with 4:13 on the clock. Southern Miss, however, would make things close and cut the deficit to five twice in the final minute of the half. A Nunn layup with five seconds to play before the buzzer made it 38-31 in Tulane's favor heading into the locker rooms.

Southern Miss' late first-half rally carried over into the second stanza initially as a pair of Love jump shots made it a 3-point affair at 38-35 before Tulane outscored the Golden Eagles 22-7 over the next 8:28 to take its largest lead of the day at 60-43 with 9:13 left in regulation. Southern Miss cut the deficit 10 at 64-54 just over three minutes later and got below the 10-point mark at 69-60 with 3:30 remaining before the final buzzer.

Tulane outscored Southern Miss 11-3 the rest of the way, including a free throw by Brown with 17 seconds remaining, to account for the final score.

"She's phenomenal on the perimeter and does a great job of reading when she can get her hand on the pass and when she can't," Stockton said of Brown. "You can look at her scoring, but it's so much more - handling the ball and everything. She's having a great senior year."

The Green Wave return to action on Thursday, Jan. 28, when they play host to C-USA foe UTEP at 7 p.m. in Fogelman Arena. The UTEP game is the first of two contests for the Tulane during the week as the team will head to Orlando, Fla., for a Jan. 31 showdown at UCF. For ticket information, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 861-WAVE.

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