NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane men’s basketball team opened its 2020-21 season with a 66-57 win over Lamar at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.
“I thought Jadan Coleman coming in and making those threes kind of got us going,” second-year head coach Ron Hunter said. “We did a lot of little things that veteran basketball teams don’t do, but these young guys will figure it out. I’m proud of them. I would rather had them play a game like this than winning by 20 and having these young guys thinking they are better than they are. They realized today what college basketball is all about. I was really proud of how they were able to fight and come back and do it defensively.”
The Green Wave (1-0) recorded 44 rebounds and shot 32.3 (20-of-62) percent from the field, while Lamar (0-2) had 45 rebounds and made 34.5 (19-of-55) percent of its shots. Tulane registered eight assists and forced the Cardinals into 18 turnovers. Sophomore Jaylen Forbes led the Green Wave with 15 points on 4-8 shooting from three. He also added seven rebounds for Tulane. Redshirt freshman Tylan Pope recorded the first double-double of his career with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while freshman Jadan Coleman provided a spark off the bench for the Olive and Blue with nine points on 3-5 shooting from behind the arc.
Tulane opened the second half with a 20-12 run in the first ten minutes to cut Lamar’s lead to 42-41. The Green Wave took the lead after a Forbes 3-pointer made it 44-42 with 8:46 left in the game. Tulane then went on a 10-1 run to extend its lead to 54-43 with 3:48 remaining in the game. Tulane was able to hold off the Cardinals the rest of the way to grab the 66-57 win.
Pope led the way for the Green Wave in the second half with 10 points and six rebounds, while Forbes added nine points and grabbed four boards. Redshirt junior Jordan Walker added all eight of his points in the second half for the Green Wave.
Lamar opened the game with a 6-0 run, but Tulane cut the deficit to 6-4 with 14:03 left in first half. The teams traded runs the rest of the half and the Green Wave trailed Lamar, 30-21, at halftime. Forbes led Tulane with six points and three rebounds, while Pope had a team-high four rebounds at the break.
Anderson Kopp led Lamar with 18 points.
The Green Wave will be back in action on Sunday, November 29, against Lipscomb at Fogelman in Devlin.
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{Courtesy: Press Release from Tulane Athletics}