Clark scores 31 but Green Wave fall to Wichita State, 69-68

NEW ORLEANS – Junior Arsula Clark scored a season-high 31 points but it was not enough to lift the Wave past Wichita State. The Tulane University women’s basketball team fell to Wichita State, 69-68, at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse today.

Tulane (12-13, 7-5) outrebounded Wichita State (14-11, 6-6) 34-32. The Green Wave shot 50.0 (25-50) percent from the field and 85.7 (12-14) from the free throw line, while the Shockers were 40.9 (27-66) overall and 66.7 (8-12) from the charity stripe. Clark led the way for the Olive and Blue with a season-high 31 points. She shot 10-13 from the field, 2-3 from three and 9-11 from the free throw line. With her and-one to start the game, Clark scored the 1,000th point of her career. She previously scored 711 points during her two years at Louisiana Monroe. Clark has scored 317 points this season for Tulane.

Junior Krystal Freeman added 17 points and five rebounds. Junior Sierra Cheatham logged 11 points and a team-high six rebounds.

“First, I want to say congratulations to Arsula Clark,” Green Wave head coach Lisa Stockton said. “She got her 1,000th point in college basketball. She had an amazing offensive performance tonight. I hate that it was lost on this game. I told the team in the locker room that I’m really disappointed. I felt like we had every opportunity to put them away. You get a team that lingers around and they bank in a three that beats you. That’s what happens when you don’t take advantage of stuff. In many ways, until the last two minutes, I thought we outplayed them. We just didn’t do what we needed to do.”

The Olive and Blue opened the second half on a 5-0 run, but Wichita State responded with 7-0 run to cut the Tulane lead to one with five minutes left in the third. The teams traded blows the rest of the quarter with the Shockers taking a 55-53 lead into the fourth quarter.

The Shockers led by three with less than five minutes to play then Cheatham knocked down her third three of the game to tie it at 62. Freeman gave Tulane the lead on the next possession with a jumper in the paint with 3:14 to play.

With 2:13 left, Clark was fouled and knocked down two free throws for her 30th and 31st points of the game to extend the Tulane lead to 66-62. The Shockers came down and hit an elbow jumper to cut the Green Wave’s lead to 66-64 on the next possession. After stops on both sides, Wichita State banked in a three with 20 seconds remaining to take a 67-66 lead. The Shockers added two free throws and Tulane made a layup at the buzzer to set the final score at 69-68.

The Green Wave registered 16 assists and 11 steals but turned the ball over 26 times. The Olive and Blue logged 34 points in the paint on the game.

Tulane grabbed an early 13-7 lead thanks to seven points from Clark to start the game. Wichita State cut the Tulane lead to 15-11 going into the second period. Both teams traded buckets for the entirety of the second quarter. Tulane held a 33-30 lead going into the half.

In the first half, Clark led the way for the Olive and Blue with 18 points, while Freeman added 10 points. The Wave scored 20 points in the paint on 46.4 percent shooting from the field in the opening half.

Up next, the Green Wave will travel to play UConn on Wednesday, Feb. 19. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. CT in Hartford, Connecticut.