Southern @ Tulane preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 6, 2017 ) Southern 76, Tulane 95

Tulane has had seven days to enjoy an impressive 65-61 comeback win over Utah - its first versus a Pac-12 school since 1957 - in the fifth-place game at the Myrtle Beach Invitational. The Green Wave next shoot for a third consecutive victory when Southern visits on Sunday.

The Green Wave scored the last 10 points of the game and held Utah scoreless for the final 4:36, and Teshaun Hightower led four Tulane scorers in double figures with 16 points and made three 3-pointers. "We're really proud of our guys," first-year coach Ron Hunter said. "I had talked about the last seven months since I took this job (spent last eight years at Georgia State), how were we going to handle adversity? In the past it's been a struggle at Tulane. We got down eight, missed a dunk and our kids could have folded then." Another reason to be proud is the Green Wave brought back just 12.2 percent of their scoring from last season - easily the lowest percentage in the country. Southern is coming off its first win over a Division I school this year, 83-77 against IUPUI on Tuesday in the final round of the Cayman Island Classic - Mainland Tournament in Omaha, Neb, but did previously take Nebraska to overtime before losing by seven.

TV: 2 p.m. ET, No TV

ABOUT SOUTHERN (3-4): Freshmen Lamarcus Lee (6.8 points, 3.7 rebounds) and Montese Blake (7.3 points) each had career highs of 17 points against IUPUI. Freshman Damiree Burns (10.3 points, 5.1 rebounds) is the leading scorer for a team that returns just 22.6 percent of its scoring from last season. Seniors Micah Bradford (10.0 points) and Darius Williams (8.7 points, 8.7 rebounds) provide veteran leadership.

ABOUT TULANE (5-1): K.J. Lawson (14.2 points, 4.5 rebounds), a Kansas transfer, added 14 points against the Utes and Jordan Walker (12.5 points, 4.0 assists, 13 3-pointers, 17 steals), a Seton Hall transfer, scored 10 of his 12 points in the second half to go with a game-high seven assists and four steals. More than 80 percent of the Wave's points have been scored by newcomers, led by Hightower (17.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists), a junior transfer from Georgia, and Christion Thompson (13 points, 6.3 rebounds), a Rhode Island transfer.

TIP-INS

1. The Green Wave are in search of their third straight win in the all-time series which they lead, 10-1.

2. In a 2-1 week for Tulane at the Myrtle Beach Invitational, Walker averaged 11.3 points, 6.0 assists and 3.0 steals per game, getting selected to the American Athletic Conference Weekly Honor Roll for the second time this season.

3. Prior to beating Utah, three of Tulane's wins were against teams ranked outside KenPom's Top-325, and a fourth - Middle Tennessee - was ranked 226.

PREDICTION: Tulane 77, Southern 60