Women’s Basketball: Tulane cruises past Nicholls in season opener

BOX SCORE

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane University women’s basketball team (1-0) opened the 2020-21 season on a high note, as it posted a convincing 88-43 win over in-state rival Nicholls State Wednesday evening inside Avron B. Fogelman Arena in Devlin Fieldhouse.

The Green Wave never trailed in the game and improved to 32-12 all-time against Nicholls State. Lisa Stockton has never lost a game to Nicholls State in her tenure as the head coach of the Green Wave.

“We started off a little sluggish, but I was glad to see our offense kick into gear and shoot a pretty good percentage in both halves,” Stockton said. “We started shooting the three a lot more accurately and I thought that was a positive. In the second half, I thought our defense did a really good job of clamping down, but also just not giving them a whole lot of scoring opportunities.”

Tulane’s 88-point outburst were the most for the Green Wave since posting 88 against FAU back on Nov. 28, 2018.

Senior Krystal Freeman led the way for the Green Wave with 23 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the floor. Joining Freeman in double figures was freshman Jerkaila Jordan, senior Sierra Cheatham and junior guard Dynah Jones, as they finished with 17, 12 and 11 points, respectively.

Freeman also pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds, as she recorded her 18th double-double.

As a team, Tulane held Nicholls State to just 25 percent shooting, including just 17 percent from beyond the arc. The Green Wave connected a 47 percent clip for the game and held a commanding 54-24 advantage on the glass.

Neither team led by more the two points in the opening 7:30 of the first quarter, but in the final two minutes of the first quarter, Tulane began to make its move, as it outscored NSU 7-2 to open up a 21-13 lead by the end of the opening frame.

Tulane continued its strong play into the second quarter, as it would opened up a 18-point with just under four minutes to go in the first half (40-22). The Green Wave would go to take a 51-28 lead into the locker room. Tulane connected at a 46.2 percent clip going 17-of-34 from the field.

Freeman led all Tulane scorers in the opening 20 minutes, as she scored 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting.

The Green Wave put the game away in the third quarter, as they held the Colonels to just 1-of-15 in the frame and outscored Nicholls State by 23-4 count. Jordan led all Green Wave scorers with eight points in the quarter.