Big win on the road for Tulane. Temple shot terribly, but Tulane was very active defensively and had excellent ball movement in building a 19-point second-half lead. The offense struggled down the stretch, but taking time off the clock on each possession was good enough to keep the team comfortably in front despite missing four of five free throws late.
K.J. Lawson had a career-high six steals, double his previous best, and also had a season-high 10 rebounds, tied his season high with six assists and had 14 points in an all-around great performance.
Teshaun Hightower scored an efficient 17 on 6 of 8 shooting. He is a terrific athlete.
Ron Hunter stuck to his seven-man rotation, with each player having a defined role.
Freshman Nobal Days is a heady defender who took two charges, and he moves the ball well on offense even though he is not a scoring threat.
Nic Thomas, Tulane's only catch-and-shoot 3-point guy, hit three treys in 13 minutes. It's hard to win without one guy who can hit 3-point shots quickly off the pass.
Jordan Walker, a northeast native (New York), scored 17 and is a clutch shot-maker if not a consistent shot-maker. He plays with a ton of confidence and had a big smile before he sank the second of two free throws in the final 30 seconds.
Christion Thompson did not have one of his better games, but he still does so many things on the floor for the Wave and is the team leader along with Lawson.
Kevin Zhang, Tulane's most inconsistent player, did not do a whole lot but he showed nice athleticism on an early bucket and was part of the stronger-than-usual defense under the basket as Temple missed a series of short shots.
The next step is winning at home. Almost unimaginably, even considering how awful Tulane was before Hunter arrived, Tulane was 6-39 at home in AAC play entering this season (while going 10-35 on the road). Three of the next four are at home, and Tulane should win all of them. UCF, which visits Tuesday, is 0-4 in the AAC. Tulsa, which visits Saturday, is just not a very good team. USF, which visits Jan. 29, was killed by preseason injuries and has struggled. The lone road trip in that stretch is against ECU, which was picked second-to-last in the league. In the past, Tulane would have found a way to lose at least two and probably all three of the home games, but this is a different team. I will be surprised if the Wave is not 5-3 or 6-2 in the league by the end of January.
K.J. Lawson had a career-high six steals, double his previous best, and also had a season-high 10 rebounds, tied his season high with six assists and had 14 points in an all-around great performance.
Teshaun Hightower scored an efficient 17 on 6 of 8 shooting. He is a terrific athlete.
Ron Hunter stuck to his seven-man rotation, with each player having a defined role.
Freshman Nobal Days is a heady defender who took two charges, and he moves the ball well on offense even though he is not a scoring threat.
Nic Thomas, Tulane's only catch-and-shoot 3-point guy, hit three treys in 13 minutes. It's hard to win without one guy who can hit 3-point shots quickly off the pass.
Jordan Walker, a northeast native (New York), scored 17 and is a clutch shot-maker if not a consistent shot-maker. He plays with a ton of confidence and had a big smile before he sank the second of two free throws in the final 30 seconds.
Christion Thompson did not have one of his better games, but he still does so many things on the floor for the Wave and is the team leader along with Lawson.
Kevin Zhang, Tulane's most inconsistent player, did not do a whole lot but he showed nice athleticism on an early bucket and was part of the stronger-than-usual defense under the basket as Temple missed a series of short shots.
The next step is winning at home. Almost unimaginably, even considering how awful Tulane was before Hunter arrived, Tulane was 6-39 at home in AAC play entering this season (while going 10-35 on the road). Three of the next four are at home, and Tulane should win all of them. UCF, which visits Tuesday, is 0-4 in the AAC. Tulsa, which visits Saturday, is just not a very good team. USF, which visits Jan. 29, was killed by preseason injuries and has struggled. The lone road trip in that stretch is against ECU, which was picked second-to-last in the league. In the past, Tulane would have found a way to lose at least two and probably all three of the home games, but this is a different team. I will be surprised if the Wave is not 5-3 or 6-2 in the league by the end of January.