Tulane edges Temple for Ron Hunter’s 500th career win

NEW ORLEANS – Ron Hunter notched his 500th career win with Tulane’s 83-82 victory over Temple on Sunday afternoon in what was the Green Wave’s regular season finale.

Tulane ends the regular season with a 19-10 record overall and a 12-6 record in conference play. The 12 conference wins is Tulane’s most in both AAC play and more than any season in C-USA play.

Jalen Cook led the way for Tulane with 24 points and five assists. Kevin Cross dropped 16 points, adding nine rebounds and six assists. Jaylen Forbes notched 16 of his own and six rebounds, while Sion James had 10 points.

The two teams battled through the first five minutes before Tulane was able to secure the lead for the remaining 14:29 of the first half. Getting ahead by as much as 13, Tulane entered the locker room for with the lead for the first time since Feb. 18 versus South Florida.

Things would get dicey in the second half with offsetting technical fouls and a pair of assistant coach ejections. With just over three minutes left to play Temple would have the lead cut to three at 76-73.

Temple would keep it tight leading by one thanks to a three pointer by Damien Dunn. Unable to play clean defense, Temple would foul R.J. McGee with 14 seconds left sending him to the line, hitting both to seal the one-point victory for Tulane.

Tulane earned a bye in the first round of the AAC tournament as the No.3 seed. They will face the winner of Wichita State and Tulsa on Friday at 8 p.m.