Tulane falls at home to Southern, 73-70

NEW ORLEANS – Sophomore forward Kevin Cross scored a game-high 20 points, but it was not enough, as the Tulane University men’s basketball team dropped a hard-fought 73-70 decision to Southern University Saturday afternoon inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.

Cross’ 20-point effort was his second 20-point game of his career. He also pulled down five rebounds. Joining Cross in double figures were guards Jalen Cook and Jaylen Forbes, as they finished with 19 and 12 points, respectively.

As a team, Tulane was outshot 50.8-46.4 percent. Defensively, Tulane forced Southern into 21 turnovers, while the Green Wave suffered 16 turnovers. The Green Wave has now won the turnover battle in each of their two games this season.

The Jaguars did hold a 35-27 advantage on the boards. Southern also held a 21-9 advantage in bench points.

Trailing by 13 points at the end of the start of the second half, the Green Wave used a relentless 23-8 push to take a 52-50 lead with just under 11:30 to go in the game. Forbes paced the Wave with nine points during the stretch to give Tulane its first lead since early in the first half.

Southern fought back and opened up a six-point lead with 2:49 remaining in the game and appeared to be in control. The final result appeared to be even clearer down the stretch, as the Jaguars held a seven-point lead with just under a minute to go in the game.

The Green Wave would not go away easily, as they trimmed Southern’s lead to three-points and had a chance to win the game at the buzzer, but a desperation 3-point attempt to tie the game by Cook fell just short.

Southern took control of the game in the early going, as it opened up a 10-point 23-13 advantage with 12:03 remaining in the first half. The Jaguars took the lead thanks to a 16-3 push over a five-minute stretch.

The Green Wave responded by holding Southern to just one point over the next three minutes, but were only able to trim the Jaguars’ lead to seven points with under nine minutes to go until the break.

Southern took an 11-point lead into the locker room thanks to a 50.0 shooting effort in the first half.

Southern had four players finish in double figure scoring for the game. Jayden Saddler scored a team-high 13 points for the Jaguars.

Tulane returns to action on Wednesday, as it heads to Florida State. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT and aired on the ACC Network. The game also can be heard live on 104.1 The Spot.

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