The Green Wave made just 15 shots in the 71-63 loss on Sunday.
Heading into its game against the North Texas Mean Green, it was safe to argue that the Tulane Green Wave really needed a good win on the hardwood.
The team's far from the worst in the American Conference, and there's still plenty of season left to add more key wins to the resume, but it seemed like such a crucial, defining game early in conference play. After all, the team had started league play so strongly before suffering its first loss at the hands of the UAB Blazers. It needed to get a key win against North Texas to restore some momentum and put things back on track.
Well, that didn't happen.
Tulane couldn't do enough of the little things right, and any late comeback attempt fell quite short as the Mean Green would pick up the 71-63 win. It was an all-around unproductive day for the majority of the Green Wave's student-athletes, and many of the same problems that have been evident in losses throughout the season were once again not corrected.
Rowan Brumbaugh led all scorers with 22 points and also posted a team-high seven rebounds. The only other Tulane player to score in double figures was Curtis Williams Jr. with 15 points -- all of which came on three-point tries -- and a team-best three assists. No other player scored more than eight points for the Green Wave: the remaining three starters combined for just 17 points, and the three players who came off the bench contributed a combined nine points.
Not to mention, the team made just 15 shots in the entire game -- and 11 of those came from Brumbaugh and Williams. 25 of Tulane's points came from the free throw line, yet that still wasn't enough for the win -- that's just how bad the offensive showing was.
Defense proved to be a struggle for the home team as well. The Green Wave had just 22 defensive rebounds to North Texas' 30. Additionally, it had 11 assists to 11 turnovers -- though that still wasn't worse than the Mean Green's 13 assists to 15 turnovers.
Things are only going to get much more difficult for Tulane in the team's upcoming stretch of games. Three of the Green Wave's next four opponents -- the Florida Atlantic University Owls, Charlotte 49ers and Memphis Tigers -- sit at the top of the American Conference. These games could be statement victories for Tulane... or their promising conference record could continue to unravel just as quickly as it was built.
Up next, Green Wave will travel to take on FAU on Wednesday at 6 p.m. It will be a rematch of a showdown that occurred back on Jan. 10: one that Tulane ultimately won by a score of 69-66.