Tulane Women’s Basketball earns No. 12 seed in conference tournament

Tulane will face No. 5 seed USF in the tournament’s first round Friday

NEW ORLEANS – Following the conclusion of Monday’s league contests, the Tulane women’s basketball team has earned the No. 12 seed in the American Athletic Conference Tournament.

Tulane will open tournament play at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, on Friday against No. 5 seed USF. Tipoff is set for 11 a.m. central with the game airing live on ESPN3.

A victory on Friday would advance the Green Wave to Saturday’s quarterfinal round against No. 4 seed Houston. Tipoff of that game would be at 11 a.m. central also on ESPN3.

A win in that game could potentially pit Tulane against either No. 1 UConn, No. 8 ECUor No. 9 SMU in the semifinals on Sunday at 3 p.m. central on ESPN2. The league championship game is Monday at 6 p.m. central on ESPN2.

USF won both matchups with Tulane this season. When the teams met on January 19 in Tampa, Florida, the Bulls claimed a 73-46 win. The contest on February 6 in New Orleans was much closer, with USF squeaking out a 50-45 victory.

The Green Wave had a strong start to league play at 3-0 but dropped 11 of its final 13 contests in the league to finish at 5-11. Wichita State, Memphis and SMU also had a 5-11 record at season’s end, but SMU and Wichita State earned the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds, respectively, due to having a 3-2 record combined against each other, Tulane and Memphis.

Tulane and Memphis then had to break a tie between the No. 11 and No. 12 seeds. Since the teams split their regular-season series at 1-1, league rules continue to break the tie by going down the conference standings until one team has a superior winning record against a team from the top down.

Both Tulane and Memphis went winless against No. 1 UConn, and Tulane went 1-1 against No. 2 UCF while Memphis went 0-1 against UCF. But league rules state that because Memphis did not have a second opportunity to potentially defeat UCF, that cannot be used as a tiebreaker.

Continuing down the league standings, Tulane and Memphis went winless against No. 3 Cincinnati and No. 4 Houston. Against No. 5 USF, Tulane went 0-2 while Memphis went 1-0, thus earning the Tigers the No. 11 seed.