TULSA — Ricky Tarrant scored 21 points but none were bigger than his 3-pointer with 7 seconds left to give Tulane a 66-64 victory over Marshall in the first round of the Conference USA tournament Wednesday night.

Josh Davis added 18 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for Tulane (19-13), which beat Marshall 91-75 back on Feb. 6 in the two teams' only other meeting of the season.

The Green Wave trailed 29-20 at halftime but didn't take its first lead in the second half until Davis converted a three-point play to give Tulane a 54-53 lead with 5:10 to play.

DeAndre Kane led Marshall (13-19) with 22 points and Dennis Tinnon scored 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds. The Thundering Herd scored 40 points in the paint but surrendered 22 second-chance points off 17 offensive rebounds for Tulane.

Tulane advances to the second round of the C-USA tournament and will play top seeded Memphis on Thursday.



Houston advances with 72-67 win over Rice

TaShawn Thomas scored 16 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and Houston moved on to the second round of the Conference USA tournament with a 72-67 win over Rice on Wednesday.

Danuel House had 14 points and eight rebounds, Joseph Young had 10 points and the sixth-seeded Cougars shot 51.9 percent from the field to win their fourth straight contest.

Houston (19-11) led 17-14 midway through the first half before using a 19-4 run capped off by a Thomas jumper to make it 36-18 with 2:34 remaining before halftime.

Tamir Jackson had 30 points and nine rebounds for Rice (5-26), which battled back in the second half to take a 54-51 lead off an Austin Ramljak 3-pointer with 10:30 to go.

With his team down by two and 2:33 to play, House converted a three-point play to give Houston a 68-67 lead and the Cougars never trailed again.

Houston will play third-seeded UTEP in quarterfinals of the C-USA tourney Thursday.



UAB defeats SMU 53-52 in Conference USA tournament

Jordan Swing scored 17 points, including a layup with 9 seconds to play, and UAB beat SMU 53-52 in the opener of the Conference USA tournament on Wednesday.

Swing had a team-high nine rebounds and was 7 of 13 from the field for the game. Rod Rucker had 11 points.

UAB was up 32-23 at halftime and led until Brian Bernardi hit two free throws to put the Mustangs up 52-51 with 29 seconds remaining. Swing's layup put the Blazers (16-16) back on top. No. 10 seed SMU missed a jumper with a second to play.

Jalen Jones led SMU (15-17) with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Cannen Cunningham had 11 points.

No. 7 seed UAB will play No. 2 seed Southern Mississippi on Thursday in the quarterfinals.

Head coach Larry Brown, who is the only coach to win an NCAA and NBA title, ends his first season at SMU.