Tulane @ Southern Miss preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 10, 2016 ) Tulane 71, Southern Miss 64

Tulane looks for a fourth straight victory when it travels to face Southern Miss Wednesday in a non-conference clash. The Green Wave come into the game having won three straight for the second time this season, including a rout of Southern University on Sunday, while the Golden Eagles have dropped three in a row, all at last week's Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament.

Coach Ron Hunter has done a wonderful job incorporating newcomers into the Tulane lineup, as players in their first year to the program are accounting for 84.7 percent of the Green Wave's scoring. Georgia transfer Teshaun Hightower leads Tulane in scoring, averaging 17.6 points, while Kansas transfer K.J. Lawson is contributing 16.4 points per game. The Golden Eagles have had their troubles with scoring, averaging 67.9 points and shooting 45.3 percent from the floor. Senior forward Boban Jacdonmi leads the way with 12.4 points and 61.4 percent shooting from the field, while sophomore guard Gabe Watson is the team's other double-figure scorer with 11.5 points per game.

TV: 8 p.m. ET, No TV.

ABOUT TULANE (6-1): It looked like Tulane might be hitting a bump in the road when backup point guard Ray Ona Embo left the team suddenly for his native France last week, but freshman R.J. McGee may have put those worries to rest. McGee played 18 minutes in the team's first game without Ona Embo against Southern, scoring 10 points on 4-of-5 shooting from the floor after not scoring in the first six games of the season. Although the Green Wave will lose the experience that the junior Ona Embo brought to the table, Hunter sees McGee as more athletic and a better defender than Ona Embo.

ABOUT SOUTHERN MISS (2-6): Turnovers have been a problem for the Golden Eagles this season, as they are tied for 271st in the country with 15.1 turnovers per contest. That could be a major problem going against the Green Wave, who rank 11th in the country, forcing 19.14 miscues per game, after Southern Miss allowed an average of 20.6 points off turnovers in its three games at the Battle 4 Atlantis Tournament. Leonard Harper-Baker (23) and Jacdonmi (20) have been the biggest culprits in committing turnovers, but even Jay Malone, who leads the team in assists, is averaging nearly two miscues per game.

TIP-INS

1. Lawson scored a career-high 30 points in Tulane's win over Southern, while Hightower matched his career standard with 21 points.

2. Southern Miss is attempting 9.6 fewer free throws per game than its opponents, while Tulane is taking 9.6 more attempts from the charity stripe than its opponents.

3. One area Hunter would like to see some improvement in for the Green Wave is rebounding, with opponents outboarding Tulane by nearly four caroms a game.

PREDICTION: Tulane 83, Southern Miss 68