TROY, Ala. – In a wild, high-scoring affair Tulane University Women’s Basketball outlasted Troy to win 103-100 on the road in double-overtime on Wednesday and improve to 6-3 on the season. The Green Wave shot 83.3 percent from the free throw line in the extra 10 minutes of play to hold off the comeback effort of the Trojans.
This is the first time the Green Wave has scored 100 points or more since December 21, 2017, also against Troy. Tulane won that contest 106-75 at home. This also marks the first double-overtime game for the Wave since it defeated TCU in double-overtime 88-78 last season on November 17, 2021.
Five players finished with double figures in scoring for Tulane. Marta Galic led the Wave with 21 points including five made threes along with six rebounds. Rachel Hakes followed with 20 points and eight assists. Hakes shot 11-of-12 from the charity stripe and added six rebounds. Dynah Jones and Kahia Warmsley each finished with 18 points in the contest, and both knocked down a pair from downtown. The final double-digit scorer for Tulane was Kyren Whittington who stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, six steals, four rebounds, and four assists.
As a team, the Green Wave dished out at least 20 assists for the fourth time this season finishing with 20 against the Trojans. On the defensive end of the floor, Tulane swiped a season-high 16 steals.
Hakes and Whittington got the offense rolling for the Green Wave early in the first quarter helping Tulane hold the advantage in the opening minutes. The Wave led by six nearly four minutes into the contest when Warmsley entered the game and provided an immediate spark with seven points in the frame including a three-pointer with 46 second remaining that sent Tulane into the second quarter leading 24-17.
The Tulane advantage was slowly chipped away by the response of Troy in the second quarter as the Wave was outscored 10-17 by the Trojans in the first six-plus minutes to bring the score to a tie at 34. Warmsley put the Green Wave back in front with her second three of the contest, but Troy got the final bucket of the half and Tulane hit the locker room trailing 41-44.
The Wave flipped the script in the third quarter as the offense and defense were rolling for Tulane to outscore Troy 33-12 in the frame. A 27-2 run over 5:28 in the quarter gave the Green Wave its largest lead at 70-50. Galic and Jones paced the offensive attack for Tulane with 13 and eight points in the frame. As a team, the Wave shot 80 percent from the floor and made seven threes while holding Troy to just 26.3 percent shooting to take a 74-56 advantage into the fourth.
Troy did not go down without a fight in the final frame mounting an 18-3 run in the frame to climb within one with 31 seconds to play. Hakes hit one free throw with three seconds remaining, but the Trojans managed to beat the clock and send the game to overtime tied at 85-85.
After falling behind 85-89 in the extra period, Tulane used the charity stripe to battle back and take the lead 90-89 with 2:07 on the clock. Hakes and Whittington combined to go 7-8 from the free throw line to account for all the Green Wave’s points in overtime. After Hakes put Tulane up 92-89 with nine seconds left, Troy banked in a three to send the game to a second overtime tied at 92.
Tulane and the Trojans exchanged leads over the first three and a half minutes of the second overtime until back-to-back transition buckets by Whittington and Jones put the Wave up 101-97 with under a minute to play. Troy cut it to 101-100 with three seconds left, but Hakes put the game away with a pair of free throws to secure the 103-100 win for the Green Wave.
Up next, Tulane will be back in New Orleans to host the Southern Jaguars on Sunday. Tipoff between the Green Wave and the Jaguars is set for 2 p.m.
{Courtesy: Tulane Athletics}
