Tulane’s Lisa Stockton wins 500th game at Tulane

Green Wave defeated Nicholls by 25 on Tuesday night.

NEW ORLEANS – In a career full of them, Tulane women’s basketball coach Lisa Stockton reached another milestone at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse on Tuesday night.

With a 71-46 victory over Nicholls, Stockton earned her 500th win as Tulane’s head coach. Now in her 25th year leading the Green Wave, Stockton has averaged 20 wins per season while in charge Uptown.

After defeating Nicholls (4-4), Tulane (7-1) has now won seven of its first eight games for the first time since 2014-15. The Green Wave are one of just two teams in the American Athletic Conference with at least seven wins at this point in the season (UConn).

Tulane got it done Tuesday night with 3-pointers and staunch defense. The team knocked down nine 3-pointers including four from Sierra Cheatham and three from Kayla Manuirirangi.

On defense, the Green Wave held Nicholls to just 21 percent shooting in the first half and blocked 11 shots, its most since an 11-block performance against Temple on Jan. 26, 2016.

Wyatt led the team with seven rebounds and had a career-high six blocks. Freeman and Cheatham had two blocks apiece, and Mia Heide had one as well.

Cheatham scored the 250th point of her career, leading Tulane with 14 points. Manuirirangi added 13 and Krystal Freeman scored 10 to record double-digit points for the seventh time in eight games.

Kaila Anderson, who is leading the conference in assists and assist-to-turnover ratio, recorded a team-high six assists and had just one turnover on the night. Twelve different Green Wave players saw action with nine scoring at least 4 points.

Cheatham got the Green Wave off to a great start, sinking 3-pointers of each of Tulane’s first three possessions to make it a 9-0 lead for the home team. The offense slowed down a bit after that, scoring just 7 points the rest of the quarter. But defensively, Wyatt and Cheatham combined for six blocks with Wyatt recording four. The Green Wave took a 16-7 lead into the second quarter.

In the second, Tulane forced an early Nicholls timeout when it began things on an 8-2 run. Meredith Schulte made three straight free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt, Dynah Jones knocked down a 3-pointer and Mia Heide got a layup on an offensive rebound to make the Colonels burn the timeout. After the timeout, an Anderson 3-pointer made it an 18-point Tulane lead at 27-9.

Tulane took a 38-24 lead into halftime, and Nicholls never got closer than 12 points the rest of the night. The Green Wave have outscored opponents 129-65 in their last three first halves.

With its three-game homestand concluded, Tulane will head over to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, for a date with the Crimson Tide this weekend. The Green Wave and Alabama are set to tip off at 2 p.m. at Coleman Coliseum.