Dec. 4, 2009

Final Stats |  Quotes

Game Book in PDF Format

NEW ORLEANS - Junior Roshaunda Barnes hit a layup with 2.4 seconds left in regulation to break a 63-all tie and senior Chassity Brown canned a pair of free throws to put the game away as the Tulane University women's basketball team rallied late to defeat Prairie View A&M, 67-63, in day one of the Big East Classic Friday evening at Fogelman Arena.

Tulane trailed 10-0 to start the game and were behind by as many as seven in the second half before jumping out to a eight-point lead at 61-53 with 3:51 left in regulation. The Panthers used a 10-2 rally to tie the game with six seconds left but junior guard Danielle Nunn took the ensuing inbounds toss, raced down the left sideline and bounced a perfect pass to Barnes, who connected on what proved to be the game winner.

With the win, Tulane posted victories in consecutive contests for the first time during the 2009-10 season to improve to 4-2. It also marked the second straight last-second win for the Green Wave, who defeated South Alabama on Tuesday night on a shot with 4.2 second remaining for a 73-71 victory. Prairie View A&M, meanwhile, falls to 2-3.

"We really battled back through the second half, did a great job of finishing shots, making free throws and getting the lead," Tulane head women's basketball coach Lisa Stockton said. "We made some mistakes there (at toward the end), but after they scored we got the ball in and got a really good shot. I thought that was good execution."

Junior Tiffany Aidoo led the Green Wave with 15 points off the bench while junior forward Brittany Lindsey was next with 12 and the duo of Brown and sophomore post Brett Benzio had 11 each. Benzio led all players with 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the year and added a pair of assists and a season-best four blocked shots.

Barnes had connected on just 2-of-11 shots from the field before Nunn's pass found her under the basket and ahead of the Prairie View A&M defender. While her layup was good for her sixth and final point of the night, Barnes was a key contributor on defense where she tallied a career-high seven steals. Brown tallied a season-high seven assists.

"I think her intensity was great," Stockton said of Barnes. "I thought she was the only player we had who was intense the entire time out there for us. Shaun is starting to get the confidence that her speed is an asset. She was all over the place today. She got to balls that I can't figure how she got to. I didn't have any doubt that she was going to make that shot at the end."

Things could not have gone much worse for the Green Wave early on as Tulane first six trips down the court resulted in three missed shots and a trio of turnovers. Prairie View A&M, meanwhile, hit four of its first seven shots to take a 10-0 lead 3:17 into the ballgame.

The Green Wave cut the deficit to a pair at 17-16 on a Benzio layup just over five minutes later and an Aidoo 3-pointer gave Tulane a 17-16 lead with 10:52 to play in the first half. Tulane led by as many as three in the opening stanza at 21-18, but the Panthers outscored the Green Wave 15-3 over the next eight minutes to hold a nine-point advantage with 40 seconds to play before halftime. A Lindsey jumper and an Aidoo trey made it a 33-29 ballgame at the break.

A big reason for Prairie View's first-half lead was the play of guard Latara Darrett who had 23 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field, a 2-of-2 performance from beyond the 3-point arc and a perfect 7-of-7 showing from the charity stripe over the first 20 minutes of play. The second half would be a different story as the Green Wave defense held Darrett to just four points.

"She had a heck of a first half," Prairie View A&M head coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, a Women's BasketballHall of Fame inductee, said of Darrett. "In the second half, Tulane made the adjustment. She had 23 first-half points, but in the second half, Tulane started to double team her and denied her the ball. At that point, someone needs to step up. We have two seniors who should have stepped up, but they really didn't."

The Green Wave scored 11 of the second half's first 16 points to take a brief 40-38 lead before the Panthers used an 11-2 run to take a 49-42 lead with 11:54 left to play. Tulane chipped away at the deficit slowly over the next five-plus minutes, tying the game on a 3-pointer by senior Indira Kaljo and taking a two-point lead on a pair of Nunn free throws.

The Green Wave advantage was as high as eight at 61-53 with 3:51 remaining before the Panthers came storming right back with eight of the game's next 10 points to make it a two-point ballgame. Neither team could score over the 1:10, but a layup by Dominique Smith tied the game at 63-all with six seconds remaining to set up the late-game dramatics.

Prairie View had a chance to tie the game after Barnes' layup, but Gaati Werema's full-court pass attempt hit off the scoreboard for a turnover and Brown put the game on ice with her free throws.

Darrett led the Panthers with a game-high 27 points while Candice Thomas was close behind with 21. Darrett also led Prairie View A&M in rebounds with eight. Larson paced the team with five assists and Thomas had a quartet of steals.

The Green Wave return to action on Saturday, Dec. 5, when they travel across town to the UNO Lakefront Arena where Tulane will take on Longwood at 3:30 p.m. in the final day of the Big Easy Classic.

Follow the Green Wave