Game 16 - Tulane

DENTON, Texas - The Mean Green fell just short in its C-USA opener against Southern Miss on Thursday, and will look to regroup on Saturday against a Tulane squad that also had a tough beginning to its conference season.

Last time out, North Texas cut Southern Miss’ lead to a single point with 9:34 remaining, but couldn’t quite get over the hump in a 74-64 loss at the Super Pit on Thursday. The game opened the C-USA era for North Texas, which forced a season-high 22 turnovers and held the Golden Eagles to 30.4 percent shooting in the second half. USM was 28-of-33 from the free throw line for the game, including 20-of-25 in the second half alone.

Tulane opened its final C-USA conference campaign with a 97-71 loss at Tulsa on Thursday night. All five Tulsa starters reached double-figures on the night, including a game-high 23 points from Shaquille Harrison. Tulane shot 48.0 percent, and was led by 17 points from Louis Dabney.

Despite residing in neighboring states, North Texas and Tulane have somehow never met on the hardwood until now. The only other team in C-USA that NT has never faced is Old Dominion, which travels to the Super Pit on Feb. 13.

Saturday will be NT’s first and final matchup against Tulane as C-USA foes, as the Green Wave will be heading to the American Athletic Conference. A charter member of the league in 1995, the 2013-14 season is Tulane’s 19th in C-USA. Southern Miss and UAB will be the only remaining charter members of C-USA next season.

Offensively, Tulane is led by a three-headed monster that is averaging nearly 74 percent of the Green Wave’s scoring, and all three players rank among C-USA’s top 10 scorers. Dabney leads the way with 18.3 points per  game, which ranks 4th in the league. Jonathan Stark isn’t far behind at 6th with 16.7 points, while Jay Hook is C-USA’s 10th highest scorer at 15.4 points per game.

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