Conference USA Basketball

Recap of Saturday, February 4th games

Updated Conference USA basketball standings

Tulane 61, Marshall 36
Whatever good will or feelings that were surrounding the Herd must be gone by now. Tulane holds Marshall to 15 second half points as they cruise to a 25 point blowout at Fogelman. David Gomez broke out of his scoring slump to shoot a perfect percentage from the field and the line as he ends up with 17 points for the Green Wave. Tulane defenders held Marshall to 24% shooting and outrebounded the Herd 43-24. Marshall hosts Rice on Wednesday and Tulane will step out of conference play to take on Loyola (La) on Tuesday.

Houston 64, East Carolina 60 (OT)
Houston is starting to look like the third best team in the conference as they were picked to be early in the season as they survive their trip to Minges. Smith, Lafayette, and Dyer combined to score 55 of the Cougars 64 points and Lanny Smith’s shooting canceled out an erratic shot selection by Lafayette (3-15 from 3pts). ECU controlled this game early and went to the half with a seven point lead, but it was not to last. Ingram tossed in 18 to pace the Pirates, who are now 1-7 in C-USA play. ECU will get a week to think about this game before they travel to Birmingham while Houston will step out of conference to travel to Texas A&M – Corpus Cristi; if that school actually exists.

UAB 75, UCF 68
Brandon Tobias and Derrick Broom each scored in the double-digits Saturday as UAB beat Central Florida, 73-68, in Orlando. Broom hit the Blazers' first three-pointer early in the second half and hit two more down the stretch to help UAB pull away. Central Florida got within 66-62 with 1:25 remaining on a three-pointer by Mike O'Donnell, but never got any closer. Tobias finished with 14 points and Broom had 13, while Lawrence Kinnard finished with 12 points for the Blazers and Marvett McDonald had 10. UAB travels to UTEP on Wednesday while UCF will travel to Southern Miss.

#3 Memphis 84, Rice 79
Darius Washington stepped to the line with 25.4 seconds left last night and it was a familiar position. With the Rice fans chanting “crybaby, crybaby” and waving tissues at him, Washington hit two free throws to help Memphis escape Autry Court with a win. Chris Roberts-Douglas scored 21 and Rodney Carney added 13 to help the Tigers stay unbeaten on the road. Morris Almond scored 30 and J.R. Harrison added 20 for the Owls, who have lost four of their last five.

The students were on Washington before the game even started, waving tissues to remind him of his public breakdown at the end of last year's C-USA championship. "Fans are going to be fans," Washington said. "When I'm on the court, I just tune them out and concentrate on the coaches and my teammates. I don't let them get to me." Memphis and Rice were playing for just the third time. The Tigers won the previous two meetings, both in the 1960s. Memphis will take the week off before heading to Marshall.

UTEP 69, Tulsa 62
UTEP rebounded from their disappointing loss to Houston by beating Tulsa 69-62 in Oklahoma on Saturday. Kevin Henderson and Jason Williams scored 16 points each as the Miners used a 12-2 run in the middle of the second half to put away the Golden Hurricane. Tulsa tried fouling to get back in the game and sent the Miners to the line 30 times in the final 3:14, but they could not get any closer than six as Tulsa falls to 2-5 in the conference. For the game, UTEP set a Reynolds Center record for free throws by a Tulsa opponent with 45 attempts, making 25 and improving to 6-1 in conference play. UTEP will host UAB on Wednesday and Tulsa will travel to SMU.

Updated Conference USA basketball standings

by John Griffin, CUSA-fans.com Basketball Staff Writer