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GAME NOTES: UNO | TULANE | SOUTHLAND
NEW ORLEANS – The University of New Orleans Privateers (1-1, 0-0 Southland) will look to hand the Tulane Green Wave (3-0, 0-0 American) their first defeat of the season Friday night at Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse.
UNO was the talk of the college basketball world on opening night after defeating TCU. The Privateers earned rankings in both the Field of 68's Mid-Major Poll (No. 20) and CollegeInsider.com's Mid-Major Madness Poll (No. 23) for the first time in program history following wins over the Horned Frogs and an exhibition victory over SUNO on homecoming. New Orleans dropped its first contest of the year Monday night at LSU.
Coleton Benson leads UNO in scoring at 16.0 points per game. Benson has made six 3-pointers this season and is a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line. All-Southland guard
Jakevion Buckley is averaging 12.5 points, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals per game.
Churchill Abass has been a force inside, averaging 7.0 points, 6.0 rebounds and one block per game.
MJ Thomas leads the Privateers off the bench with 7.5 points and 6.0 rebounds in 17 minutes per game. Thomas has connected on seven of his eight shots from the field — an .875 field-goal percentage through the opening two games.
New Orleans has used the same starting five — Abass, Benson,
Enzo Boudouma, Buckley and
Kedrick Osby — for both regular-season and exhibition games this season.
Friday's game will be the 51
st all-time meeting between the two schools with the series tied at 25-25 advantage after last season's overtime victory uptown. UNO has won two in a row, and
Stacy Hollowell is 1-0 against the Green Wave as a Div. I head coach.
SCOUTING THE GREEN WAVE
Tulane was picked to finish third in the American Athletic Conference preseason poll and enters Friday's game with wins over Samford, Texas State and Louisiana. The Green Wave are led by preseason American Athletic Conference Player of the Year Rowan Brumbaugh.
The Washington, D.C., native leads Tulane in points per game (21.3), 3-pointers made (9), 3-point percentage (.600), free throws made (27), free throws attempted (29) and minutes per game (36.0). His 29 free-throw attempts this season are the fifth most in the country.
Last season against UNO, Brumbaugh finished with 13 points on 4-of-13 shooting from the field. He made five of his 10 free throws and pulled down six rebounds to go with four turnovers.
The Green Wave rank No. 1 in the NCAA in free-throw percentage, making 90% of their attempts from the charity stripe this season. They also rank No. 33 in 3-point percentage after connecting on 41.3% of their shots from beyond the arc. Conversely, they rank just 316th (out of 355) in 3-point attempts per game at 18.3.
COVERAGE
Fans can watch Friday night's game on ESPN+, or listen for free on UNOPrivateers.com. Live Stats are available at the link above, and updates will also be available on the @PrivateersHoops X account. Tipoff from Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse is set for 6:30 p.m.
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SOCIAL MEDIA
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@UNOPrivateers on Twitter,
@PrivateersMBB on Instagram, like
/PrivateersMBB on Facebook and subscribe to the
PrivateerAthletics YouTube channel.
