Houston controls second half for win over Tulane

HOUSTON – In a building that sells jambalaya and sno-balls, the Tulane women’s basketball team couldn’t make itself at home.

Houston outscored Tulane 22-11 in the third quarter and used that advantage to earn a 72-48 victory over the Green Wave at H&PE Arena on the campus of Texas Southern University on Wednesday evening.

Tulane (11-11, 3-6 American Athletic Conference) trailed 27-9 at one point and rallied to cut Houston’s lead to just 28-24 at halftime, but the Couguars (17-6, 6-3) came out of the halftime break on fire and pulled away for the win.

Houston scored the first 5 points of the second half, but Tulane seemed to answer with a 7-0 run of its own. From there, though, the home team controlled play. Over the final five minutes of the third quarter, Houston went on a 17-4 run that included three 3-pointers to take a 54-39 lead into the final quarter.

In the final period, the Green Wave could never make up ground like it did in the second quarter. Tulane turned the ball over eight times in the final 10 minutes, finished with 22 total turnovers and shot just 32 percent from the field. Houston, meanwhile, shot 49 percent from the field, made nine 3-pointers and had 18 assists to Tulane’s nine.

Kolby Morgan was the Green Wave’s highest scorer with 16 points, and Kayla Manuirirangi also had double-figure scoring with 10. Harlyn Wyatt came up just shy of a double-double with 8 points and nine rebounds, and Kaila Anderson led the team with three assists. Morgan had a team-high three steals.

Houston dominated the first 15 minutes of the game, taking a 16-9 lead into the second quarter and beginning that period on an 11-0 run to make it a 27-9 lead for the home team.

But the Green Wave took a timeout with seven minutes remaining and regrouped, scoring 19 of the final 24 points of the half to make it just a 32-28 lead for the Cougars at halftime. Tulane closed the second quarter on a 9-0 run that was part of a larger 14-2 run with five different players scoring for the Green Wave in that span.

During the contest, Manuirirangi earned her 100th career assist. Morgan is now three career points away from sole possession of second all-time in Tulane history (2,081).

Tulane returns home on Saturday for a game on ESPN3. The Green Wave will be hosting USF at Fogelman in Devlin with tipoff slated for 1 p.m.