Tulane battles hard but falls at Florida State, 59-54

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Freshman guard Jalen Cook continued his early season scoring spree, as he netted a game-high 23 points, but it was not enough as the Tulane University men’s basketball team (1-2) suffered a hard-fought 59-54 setback to Florida State (2-1) Wednesday night at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

Cook finished the night by going 7-of-18 from the field and connected on four 3-pointers to lead the way for the Green Wave. In addition, Cook dished out a game-high four assists. He also pulled down seven rebounds and had two steals.

“The country is going to find out how good this kid is (Jalen Cook) and they are going to find out how good our team is,” Hunter said. “Our kids gave great effort. We came ready to play. The focus that we had today is the focus that we have to have all year. We came in here and battled and just came up a little short.”

Joining Cook in double-digits was sophomore Jaylen Forbes. The Mississippi native was 5-of-15 from field and netted three shots from long range for the third straight game. Forbes also pulled down a team-best eight rebounds.

As a team, Tulane was outshot 40.0-29.1 percent from the floor. FSU also held a 42-38 advantage on the glass. The Green Wave did win the turnover battle for the third straight game, as they forced the Seminoles into 15 miscues.

“I thought we frustrated them with our defense. I told the guys if we ever got the lead in the second half, we’d win the game, but we could never get over that hump,” Hunter said.

Tulane also held FSU leading scorer Malik Osborne to just nine points on 3-of-5 shooting. Osborne entered the game averaging 18.0 points per game.

Tulane was without services of second-leading scorer Kevin Cross, who missed the game with an injury.

“We would have loved to have Kevin Cross in this game to have that third scorer, but it was smart not to play them,” Hunter said.

The game was evenly matched for much of the contest, as no team led by more than 10 points. The game also featured seven lead changes and three ties.

The Green Wave came out firing in the early going and opened up a seven-point lead with 11:18 remaining until halftime. FSU responded to the Green Wave’s first half push and took a 37-32 lead into the locker room.

Both teams struggled from the floor coming out of the locker room as they combined for just seven points over the course of the first seven minutes of the second half. Tulane cut FSU’s lead to three with under 10 minutes to go in the game, but the Seminoles responded by going on an 11-4 run to open up a 10-point lead with 3:46 remaining and appeared to be in control of the game.

Tulane would not go away however, as it put together an 8-1 to push to trim FSU’s lead to three with just under two minutes to go. Cook hit a pair of 3-pointers during the stretch to lead the way for the Green Wave.

The Green Wave were unable to get any closer, as they were held scoreless for the remainder of the game.

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Tulane heads South to take part in the 2021 Baha Mar Hoops Nassau Championship in the Bahamas. Joining the Green Wave in the Bahamas will be Abilene Christian, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, Drexel, Jacksonville State, Toledo and Valparaiso.