NEW ORLEANS – Tulane University men's basketball (10-3, 1-0) opens American Athletic Conference play with a dominant 84-59 victory over new conference foe Rice (6-8, 0-1) on Wednesday night in Avron B. Fogelman Arena in the Devlin Fieldhouse. The Green Wave controlled the paint against the Owls outscoring Rice 46-18 around the rim.
 
With the win, the Tulane notched its second 1-0 start to conference play in the Ron Hunter and its first since the 2021-22 season. The Wave also improved to 28-24 overall and 19-8 at home against the Owls. Over the past two seasons Tulane moved to 25-1 when scoring more than 80 points as well.
 
Five players scored in double figures for the Wave led by Collin Holloway with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting from the floor. Kevin Cross followed with his 12th career double posting 16 points and 10 rebounds. Cross also tallied five assists marking his eighth career game with at least 10 points, 10 boards, and five steals.
 
Kolby King finished with 16 points along with seven rebounds to notch his 12th game this season with double figures in scoring. The sophomore guard also swiped a pair of steals marking his 10th multi-steal game of the season.
 
Jaylen Forbes and Sion James rounded out the top performers for Tulane each tallying 12 points. Forbes moved into ninth in scoring in AAC history surpassing Temple's Shizz Alston with 1,606 points since joining the Wave. James added five assists to his performance to record his 18th career game with at least five assists.
 
As a team, Tulane shot 56.7 percent from the floor marking the ninth game this season the Wave has shot above 50 percent from the field. The Green Wave tallied 46 points and matched a season-high with 24 assists.
 
In the first half the Green Wave jumped out to an early advantage and didn't look back. After Tulane pushed its lead to double-digits with 9:49 to play the Owls pulled back within eight with just over seven minutes on the clock. The Green Wave responded with a 10-0 run build its largest lead of the half before taking a 37-24 advantage into the locker room.
 
Cross led Tulane heading into the half with 10 points and six rebounds. Holloway and King each added six first half points.
 
The second half began with Cross and Holloway scoring the first 16 points for the Green Wave in the second half as Tulane maintained its double-digit lead over Rice. The Wave extended its lead to as many as 29 points late in the contest before closing out the convincing victory 84-59 over the Owls.
 
Holloway and King each tallied double figures in scoring in the second half as Holloway posted 12 points and King notched 10.
 
Up next, Tulane will face North Texas on the road in Denton, Texas, on Saturday, January 6. Tipoff between the Green Wave and the Mean Green is set for 1 p.m. on ESPNU.
 
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