Tulane Women’s Basketball defeats Vanderbilt 71-59 in home opener

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane women’s basketball team hit seven 3-pointers, outrebounded Vanderbilt 45-32 and got 27 points from senior guard Kolby Morgan in a 71-69 victory over the Commodores at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse on Friday afternoon.

Tulane (2-2) led by as many as 10 points multiple times in the first half, but Vanderbilt (0-3) continued to fight back to close the gap throughout the game. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that the Green Wave pulled away and kept its distance from the Commodores.

Ahead by just 3 with two minutes left in the third quarter, Morgan drained 3-pointers on back-to-back Tulane possessions to put the Green Wave up 5 entering the fourth. To start the fourth, Harlyn Wyatt got a layup and Morgan followed with one of her own to make it a 9-point game, and Tulane never led by fewer than 7 points again.

Besides her team-high 27 points, Morgan also had two blocks on the same possession, seven rebounds and two assists. Four different Green Wave players had at least seven rebounds on the game including Tene Thompson with a team-best eight, Morgan with seven, Meredith Schulte with seven and Wyatt with seven.

Freshman Kaila Anderson tied her career high with six assists, and Kayla Manuirirangi was Tulane’s only other double-digit scorer with 11 points including three 3-pointers. Wyatt and Schulte had 8 points apiece, and Maddison Wells and Thompson added 6.

During the game, Morgan also eclipsed 1,700 points in her career.

Tulane had a strong first quarter, going on a 9-0 run midway through the period to take a lead as big as 8 points with two minutes to go. But Vanderbilt clawed back by the end of the quarter, using a 7-1 run to cut Tulane’s lead to just 17-15 after 10 minutes.

In the second quarter, the Green Wave built their lead up once again, with the team knocking down four 3-pointers to help their offensive efforts. Tulane was ahead 34-24 with 48 seconds remaining, but Vanderbilt closed the period on a brief 5-0 run to give Tulane a 34-29 lead at the break. The Green Wave were outrebounding the Commodores 24-10 at halftime, and Morgan had 13 points.

Tulane now has a week off before its next games. The Green Wave return to action on Friday in Bimini, Bahamas, to face Iowa State. Tipoff for that game will be at 2:45 p.m. central.