Nov. 22, 2008
Box Score
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Tulane's Eric Vianney sank two free throws with five seconds remaining to break a 70-70 stalemate and give the Green Wave a 72-70 victory Saturday afternoon at Fogelman Arena.
Leading the Colonels on the floor were freshman Fred Hunter (Denton, Texas/Denton), who poured in a career-high 23 points. Sophomore Dominic Friend (Geelong, Australia/St. Joseph's) netted 14, adding a game-high eight rebounds, followed by senior Ryan Bathie (Melton, Australia/Mowbray), who added 16.
"I'm extremely proud of our guys," said Head Coach J.P. Piper. "I thought we played a heck of a game against a pretty good team. We had a few opportunities to sieze victory and unfortunately it slipped out of our hands. I don't think we have anything to hang our heads over."
Bathie and senior Justin Payne (Opelousas, La./Opelousas) combined for nine assists, with Payne adding three steals.
Nicholls hit six-straight free throws in the final final four minutes, including five from the hands of Hunter, to even the score at 70, but the effort was not enough as the Colonels fall to 1-1 on the season.
Back-to-back layups from Kellan Carter (Fresno, Calif./Edison) knotted the game at 49-all with just under 10 minutes remaining. Less than a minute later, Bathie nailed two from the line to give the Colonels their first lead (51-50) since the 13:11 mark of the first half.
From then on, the squads traded buckets and the lead back-and-forth, with neither team leading by more than three.
The Colonels came out on fire, sinking six of their first seven shots, including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc to take a 14-12 lead into the first media timeout.
But the Wave stormed right back, scoring 13 unanswered points to take a 25-16 advantage.
Nicholls cut the Green Wave lead to three (31-28), as Friend laid one off the backboard at the 4:50 mark. Friend poured in 11 first-half points, while Hunter added 10 as Tulane took a 36-32 lead to the locker room.
Tulane forced 10 Nicholls turnovers and held the Colonels to just 18.2% (2-for-11) from three-point land in the first half.
"The greatest concern for me was that we improved from the UNO game to this game and I think we did," added Piper, "so we'll go back to work on Monday and keep trying to get better. I'm proud our kids and proud of the way we represented Nicholls today. Now we just have to continue to improve."
The Colonels will travel to Normal, Ill. over the Thanksgiving holiday to participate in the World Vision Invitational. Nicholls will face tournament-host Illinois State on Friday at 6 p.m.
######
