Thompson’s second half surge leads Tulane past Middle Tennessee, 86-74

CONWAY, S.C. – Christion Thompson scored all of his game-high 25 points in the second half, as the Tulane men’s basketball team defeated Middle Tennessee, 86-74, on day two of the 2019 Myrtle Beach Invitational at the HTC Center.

With the win, Tulane (4-1) advances to Sunday’s fifth-place game against the winner of the second consolation semifinal between Utah and Ohio. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2 or ESPNU at a time to be determined.

Thompson shot 8-for-12 overall and 5-for-6 from 3-point range while grabbing six rebounds and make all four of his free throw attempts. Teshaun Hightower contributed 20 points, six boards and two steals while making 13 of 16 free throws, as K.J. Lawson scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half to go with three 3s and a trio of steals.

Jordan Walker also reached double-figures with 11 points and a team-high five assists.

“It was a great bounce-back game in regard to learning something about your basketball team,” head coach Ron Hunter said. “I wanted to see how they would respond to a tough loss yesterday and they came out of the gates and did a great job.”

Tulane was active early at both ends of the court, getting stops and into transition offense to create an 11-2 lead and force Middle Tennessee (3-3) to burn a timeout just over two minutes into the action.

The Green Wave’s defensive rotations gave the Blue Raiders shooting trouble but scored six straight points despite five turnovers to create their first double-digit lead, 17-7, on a Walker layup with 12:31 left in the first half.

Middle Tennessee did not abandon its unsuccessful efforts to establish an outside shooting presence, making just 1 of 10 attempts in the opening 20 minutes and watching its deficit grow to as many as 19 points. Tulane made six shots from deep on the same number of attempts as the opposition and remained in control by taking a 42-25 advantage into halftime.

The Green Wave shot 12-for-23 (.522) overall and 12-for-14 (.857) at the free throw line while owning an 18-12 rebounding edge in the first half, while the Blue Raiders shot just 10-for-27 (.370) from the floor.

Thompson came out of the break with a hot hand, sinking five consecutive shots including four 3-pointers and converting a three-point play, as Tulane extended the margin to 24 points – 62-38 – with 12:45 to go.

“Coach got on me (at halftime), but the team came up to me and told me to just stay with it and trust everybody,” Thompson said. “I just had to settle down. It got into my head, and really, I just chilled, trusted in the process (and) all the work I put in.”

Middle Tennessee would make up a ton of ground with an impressive shooting performance over the next seven minutes, starting with a run that included making 7 of 9 shots to cut its deficit to single digits, 74-65, with 5:09 remaining.

The Blue Raiders shot 20-for-31 (.645) in the second half, including 9-for-16 (.563) beyond the 3-point arc, but did not make a single trip to the foul line.

“This group knows how to win, it’s just got to get to the point where they trust each other,” Hunter said. “Trust is something you can talk about it but you just can’t do it in a day. We’re using this weekend as a conference tournament and we have to because we haven’t had much practice. This is strictly a business trip for us.”

The Green Wave pushed the margin back to double digits twice after that, the second proving fatal for the Blue Raiders, as the Wave knocked down 14 second-half free throws to close out the 12-point victory.

Tulane shot 24-for-50 (.480) overall, 12-for-24 (.500) from 3-point land and 26-for-30 (.867) at the free throw stripe. Middle Tennessee shot 30-for-58 (.517) on the day, 10-for-26 (.385) from outside and 4-for-7 (.571) at the foul line.

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