Tulsa @ Tulane preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 28, 2019 ) Tulane 64, Tulsa 72

Tulsa will be looking for its second straight road win in American Athletic Conference play when it visits Tulane on Saturday. The Golden Hurricane dominated on the defensive end in each of their three conference wins and shut down East Carolina in a 65-49 triumph on Wednesday.

Tulsa held the Pirates to 19 second-half points on Wednesday and 29.2 percent shooting overall to mark the second time in four AAC games that it held an opponent under 50 points. "We were on point," Golden Hurricane coach Frank Haith told reporters. "I thought our defense was terrific. A tremendous team effort on that end of the court. We scored just enough, and it was a really good performance by our guys." Tulane is searching for consistency under first-year coach Ron Hunter and traded losses and wins over its first five AAC contests, with an impressive road victory at Temple followed by a 74-55 home loss to UCF in the last two contests. "Congratulations to UCF," Hunter told reporters. "They came in needing this win, and they played like they needed this win. It's not that we didn't play hard, it's this whole deal that we talked about how we are going to handle success, and we didn't do that today"

TIME: 2 p.m. ET. TV: None

ABOUT TULSA (11-6, 3-1 AAC): The Golden Hurricane were ripped 75-44 in a loss at Cincinnati on Jan. 8 but responded with a 63-61 home win over Houston before going on the road and dominating on Wednesday. Tulsa is led on both ends of the floor by Junior guard Brandon Rachal, who paces the team in scoring (14.9 points), rebounds (6.6), steals (2.1) and blocks (0.8) while shooting 50.8 percent from the field. Rachal averaged 19.5 points in the last two games and forward Jeriah Horne stepped up with 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting against East Carolina.

ABOUT TULANE (10-7, 2-3): The Green Wave are led by junior guard Teshaun Hightower (16.4 points), but he slumped to a season-low two points on 1-of-7 shooting in Tuesday's loss to UCF and committed five turnovers while battling foul trouble. Picking up some of the slack was guard Christion Thompson, who scored a team-high 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting after totaling 14 points on 6-of-20 shooting in the two previous contests. Guard K.J. Lawson (13.9 points) joins Hightower and Thompson in averaging double figures and knocked down multiple 3-pointers in each of the last three games.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Tulane G Nic Thomas is 8-of-17 from 3-point range over the last three games.

2. Tulsa G Lawson Korita is 2-of-13 from the floor over the last three contests.

3. The Golden Hurricane took both meetings last season, including an 80-57 triumph at the Green Wave.

PREDICTION: Tulane 66, Tulsa 64