NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — Despite being shorthanded due to injury and trailing early in the second half by 21 points, Tulane’s women’s basketball team (7-7, 0-3 AAC) showed great effort, tenacity and fight in falling to South Florida (10-6, 2-1 AAC) by a 70-63 score on Saturday, Jan. 6 at Devlin Fieldhouse.
The program started the final stanza trailing by 12 points and slowly but surely fought all the way back to eventually take a 63-62 lead on a Marta Galic three with 1:49 remaining in the game. The Bulls stood strong though and outscored the Green Wave by a 8-0 margin to win this one 70-63. Galic led the big comeback effort for Tulane with 12 points in the quarter.
“We showed up and competed,” head coach Lisa Stockton explained. “We had every reason to make excuses today. There were a lot of doubters. Luckily, none of them were in our uniforms.”
Galic scored a game-high 23 points for Tulane and also tied for the team lead with seven rebounds. She shot 8-for-17 from the field and went 4-for-6 from beyond the arc plus has five assists. Hannah Pratt came up with 16 points, six rebounds and two assists plus a steal and a block. Chiara Grattini totaled seven points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Irina Parau tied for the team lead with seven rebounds plus had six points and a team-high six assists. Joy Madison-Key had five points and a steal. Amira Mabry recorded six points and three rebounds.
“It is a pride thing,” Marta Galic stated. “I know personally I left everything that I had on the floor today. That how I always want to play.”
South Florida was led by 32 points from Romi Levy. Eveilien Lutje-Schipholt added 10 points and 12 rebounds.
The game featured two tied scores and four lead changes. USF’s biggest lead was 21 points early in the third quarter. Tulane’s largest advantage was one-point lead in both the first quarter and in the fourth quarter. Tulane shot 34.5 percent from the field (19-for-55), 26.9 percent from three-point range (7-for-26) and 72 percent from the free throw line (18-for-25). The Green Wave had 39 rebounds, 17 assists, four steals and three blocks.
“Defense was definitely our focus today”, Hannah Pratt said. “USF is a very good offensive team so we talked about walling up and not fouling at practice this week. We switched often as sometimes I was guarding the five and other times I was manned up with the point guard.”
South Florida shot 44.1 percent from the field (35-for-59), 31.3 percent from three-point range (5-for-16) and 68.4 percent from the free throw line (13-for-19). The Bulls totaled 38 rebounds, 16 assists, six steals and two blocks
USF led 21-12 after the first quarter and used a strong second quarter to take a 41-21 lead into the break. Tulane’s defense clamped down in the third when they outscored the Bulls 16-10 to trail 51-37 headed to the fourth. The fourth quarter was one of the strongest of the season for Tulane as they outscored USF 26-19.
Next, Tulane keeps the homestand going and hosts East Carolina on Saturday, Jan. 13, at 2 p.m. at Devlin Fieldhouse
Notables:
Starting guards Kyren Whittington and Kaylah Rainey are both day-to-day with injuries sustained during the first conference road trip from Dec. 30 – Jan. 2…Marta Galic reached a pair of milestones in the game was she scored her 1,000 career points and also pulled down her 500th career rebound.
{Courtesy: Tulane Athletics}
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