Rashaun Agee exploded for 27 points as USC ran past Tulane on Tuesday night for an 89-60 win. The Trojans’ senior forward, who was 10-of-12 from the floor and 3-of-4 from the 3-point line, picked up where he left off in March. In his previous five games, Agee had averaged 16.6 points, with two 20+point outings.
Agee had a monster all-around game Tuesday, with nine rebounds and four blocks.
The Green Wave managed to get within 10 points with 9:03 remaining, but then the Trojans, who never trailed, outscored Tulane 31-12 the rest of the way.
At halftime, USC was up 39-24 and star Desmond Claude had just five points on 2-of-8 shooting, but it hardly mattered.
Tulane had more turnovers (13) than made field goals (8) in the first half, as well as two players in foul trouble. Tyler Ringgold and Percy Daniels each had four fouls before the break.
But the shorthanded Green Wave didn’t have much of a choice, with five players already in the transfer portal. That includes two starters: 6-foot-8 Kaleb Banks, who averaged 14.7 points and a team-high 6.7 rebounds per game, and Kam Williams, who has already made a decision to transfer to Kentucky.
Rowan Brumbaugh, Tulane’s leading scorer, still played and had 11 points. Asher Woods paced the Green Wave with 18 points.
USC was also down a couple of starters. Wesley Yates was in a walking boot and Chibuzo Agbo was unavailable.
It’s been 10 years since Ron Hunter fell off his stool when his son, RJ Hunter, made a game-winning shot for Georgia State in the NCAA Tournament. The elder Hunter is now the head coach of Tulane, while RJ is a voluntary assistant coach.
The Hunters didn’t get a win this time because the night belonged to Agee.
After the Knights and Beavers traded the lead 17 times throughout the game, it was no surprise that this one came down to the final seconds. With UCF holding a slim 76-75 lead, Oregon State had a chance for the winning shot. But OSU coach Wayne Tinkle took a timeout with just 5.4 seconds left, right before his team made what would’ve been the go-ahead basket.
The Beavers got another chance after the timeout, but Liutauras Lelevicius missed the 3-point shot and the Knights held on.
The transfer portal has hit both of these teams hard. Oregon State was missing its top three scorers this season — Michael Rataj, Nate Kingz and Parsa Fallah — while UCF was without Keyshawn Hall, who averaged a team-high 18.8 points per game this season.
But the Knights had Nils Machowski, who has already entered his name in the transfer portal but decided to play in the tournament. He tied a career high with 13 points in the first half alone and finished with 15 points. Machowski was one of four UCF players to hit double figures. Darius Johnson and Tyler Hendricks also had 15 points, while Moustapha Thiam finished with 10 points.
Oregon State jumped out to a 19-12 lead but UCF answered with a 13-4 run. From that point, the two teams went back and forth for most of the first half until the Knights closed out the final two minutes with seven straight points to take a 45-36 advantage into the break.
UCF’s Tyler Hendricks hits a 3-pointer, taking the lead over Oregon State
Lelevicius was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field for nine points at halftime. He ended up with a game-high 20 points. Freshman Maxim Logue averaged 2.1 points per game during the regular season. He came up big for the Beavers with his first double-double: 18 points and 10 rebounds.
Cincinnati uses strong defensive first half to propel its offense in second half and take down DePaul
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