Hot-shooting Tulane downs Southeastern, 89-66

NEW ORLEANS, La. – Tulane shot 59.6 percent from the field, including 61.5 percent in the first half, in taking an 89-66 non-conference victory over Southeastern Louisiana Monday night in Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.

Junior guard Marlain Veal led the Lions (1-1) with 26 points. Senior guard Jabbar Singleton tossed in seven points while senior forward James Currington had a team-high seven rebounds. Southeastern shot 35.4 percent (23-of-65) while grabbing 39 rebounds.

Melvin Frazier had a double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds for Tulane (2-0), which won its third straight over Southeastern. Ray Ona Embo (14 points), Cameron Reynolds (13) and Blake Paul (10) were also in double figures for the Green Wave, who made 31 of their 52 shots and had 41 rebounds.

Tulane made 16 of its 26 shots in the first half to take a 44-36 lead at the break. The Green Wave then opened the second half on a 14-4 run, taking a 58-40 advantage on Ona Embo jumper at the 16:43 mark. Senior guard Quinton Thomas buried a 3 from the right side for his first points as a Lion to make it 60-44 with 13:45 left. But Reynolds answered with a 3 to extend the Wave lead to 65-45 with 12:30 remaining. A Colin Slater layup gave Tulane its biggest lead at 85-61 with 4:09 left.

Tulane jumped out to a 16-6 lead at the 13:55 mark behind dunks by Ona Embo and Frazier. Veal drained a 3 to cut the deficit to 16-9 with 13:14 left.

A three-point play following a Reynolds layup gave Tulane its biggest lead of the half at 33-18 with 6:17 remaining. Southeastern responded with a 9-2 run to get to within 35-27 with 3:34 left on a Singleton 3. Tulane pushed the lead back to 39-28 on a 3 by Caleb Daniels at the 2:27 mark. Currington drove in for a layup to cut the margin to five but Frazier hit a 3 with 2 seconds left to give the Wave the 44-36 halftime lead.

NOTES:

Tulane now leads the series 10-2.

Veal was 11-of-21 from the field, tying a career high for field goals. He also had 11 against Central Arkansas on Feb. 22.

QUOTES:

Southeastern head coach Jay Ladner:

“I thought we did a good job of hanging in there. We cut the deficit to five and then we gave up a wide-open 3 at the end of the half. But credit Tulane. They have a good basketball team.”

On the defensive effort…

“Our defense has to set the tone for us and I thought that was one of the weakest defensive efforts we’ve had in a long time. We didn’t play with any energy. It was very disappointing.”

UP NEXT:     

Southeastern travels to Louisiana-Monroe Thursday for a 7 p.m. tip-off in Fant-Ewing Coliseum.

BOX SCORE

Tulane 89, Southeastern La. 66

SOUTHEASTERN LA. (1-1)

Veal, Marlain 11-21 2-3 26; Greenwood, Moses 3-7 2-4 9; Capps, Jordan 2-8 4-7 8; Singleton, Jabbar 1-4 4-6 7; Currington, James 2-5 2-6 6; Charleston, Keith 2-5 0-2 5; Thomas, Quinton 1-2 0-0 3; Polanco, Eddy 1-6 0-0 2; Gonzalez, Brandon 0-3 0-0 0; West, D’Angelo 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 23-65 14-28 66.

TULANE (2-0)

FRAZIER, Melvin 10-13 1-3 25; ONA EMBO, Ray 5-10 3-5 14; REYNOLDS, Cameron 5-10 1-1 13; SEHIC, Samir 1-1 10-10 12; PAUL, Blake 5-8 0-0 10; CORNISH, Jordan 2-3 1-3 5; DANIELS, Caleb 1-3 0-0 3; KOKA, Buay 1-1 0-0 2; BARRETT, Shakwon 0-0 2-4 2; SLATER, Colin 1-3 0-1 2; AJANG, Bul 0-0 1-2 1; CONROY, Riley 0-0 0-0 0; REYES, Sammis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-52 19-29 89.

Southeastern Louisiana……..   36   30  –   66

Tulane……………………   44   45  –   89

3-point goals–Southeastern Louisiana 6-20 (Veal, Marlain 2-4; Charleston, Keith 1-2; Singleton, Jabbar 1-3; Greenwood, Moses 1-1; Thomas, Quinton 1-1; Gonzalez, Brandon 0-2; West, D’Angelo 0-4; Polanco, Eddy 0-2; Currington, James 0-1), Tulane 8-17 (FRAZIER, Melvin 4-6; REYNOLDS, Cameron 2-3; DANIELS, Caleb 1-2; ONA EMBO, Ray 1-4; SLATER, Colin 0-2). Fouled out–Southeastern Louisiana-Greenwood, Moses; Capps, Jordan, Tulane-None. Rebounds–Southeastern Louisiana 39 (Greenwood, Moses 9), Tulane 41 (FRAZIER, Melvin 10). Assists–Southeastern Louisiana 6 (Veal, Marlain 3), Tulane 19 (FRAZIER, Melvin 5). Total fouls–Southeastern Louisiana 25, Tulane 22. Technical fouls–Southeastern Louisiana-None, Tulane None. A-1316