Tulane downs Texas Southern, 77-70

NEW ORLEANS – Redshirt junior forward Samir Sehic scored a career and game-high 28 points to lead the Tulane men’s basketball team to a 77-70 home win over Texas Southern Monday night at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.

Sehic joined an increasingly growing party as he became the fifth Tulane (4-6) player this season to surpass the 20-point plateau this season. In addition, Sehic also pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds to record his third double double of the year and the fifth of his career.

“I’ve always said that I have the easiest job, especially when my teammates are feeding me the ball like they did tonight,” Sehic said.

Guard Caleb Daniels continued his impressive sophomore campaign as he scored in double-figures for the ninth straight game, finishing with 21 points on 7-for-9 shooting, including 3-for-3 from 3-point range. The last time Tulane had two players score 20 or more points was Feb. 8, 2018 at Tulsa when Sehic and Jordan Cornish went for 21 and 20 points, respectively.

Freshman guard Connor Crabtree also joined in the scoring party as he finished in double figures for the first time in his career, closing with 11 points.

Tulane’s win over Texas Southern (4-7) handed the Green Wave its second straight win at home. Monday night’s matchup also served as the first all-time meeting between the two schools.

Defensively, the Green Wave held Texas Southern, which earlier this season defeated Baylor and Oregon, below its season scoring average of 76.2 points per game and limited the Tigers to just 36.4 percent shooting from the field.

Tulane also held Texas Southern leading scorer Trayvon Reed to just five points. Reed came into the game averaging 15.0 points per game.

The Green Wave led by as many as 21 points thanks to a Grant Quinn jumper at the 11:03 mark of the second half. Tulane’s 21-point lead matched the team’s largest lead of the season (UT-Martin).

Texas Southern trimmed Tulane’s lead to eight, as it scored the first four points of the second half, but the Green Wave responded with a 10-4 push over the next three and a half minutes to increase the advantage to 14.

Tulane’s lead would not fall below double digits for the next 15 minutes.

“I felt like our guys did a traffic job defensively, especially in the first half,” head coach Mike Dunleavy Sr., said. “We had over 20 deflections in the game. The biggest thing that showed in practice this week was our effort and I think it showed tonight.”

Tulane took a 34-22 lead into the locker room thanks to some strong shooting, as the Green Wave connected at a 50.0 percent clip, going 13-of-26 from the field. Tulane also featured a strong defensive effort, as it held Texas Southern to just 23.3 percent.

Texas Southern’s 22 first half points were the fewest points by a Tulane opponent this season.

The Tigers had no answers for Sehic as he led all Green Wave first half scorers with 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the opening 20 minutes.

The Green Wave return to action on Friday as they travel to Atlantic City to take on Towson (3-7) for the start of the Boardwalk Battle. Tipoff is set for 3 p.m. (CST).

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