Feb. 10, 2006

ORLANDO, Fla. - After taking advantage of a key stretch of home games, the Tulane men's basketball team heads back out on the road for a critical two-game swing against Conference USA opponents. Twenty days ago, the Green Wave was winless in league play and tied for last place, but it was facing a stretch of five out of six games in the friendly confines of Fogelman Arena. Currently, the Wave is in fifth place in Conference USA, having won five of the six games in that stretch, including its first road victory of the season at Rice.

Official Game Notes

"We knew we had a very important stretch of games, with five at home," Tulane head coach Dave Dickerson said. "We took advantage of that stretch, but now we go into one of the toughest stretches of the schedule. We have not had a lot of success on the road and we play four out of six away from home. Hopefully our recent success will give us some momentum and confidence against UCF on Saturday."

After defeating East Carolina and losing to Houston at home, Tulane upended Rice on the road. The Wave returned home to stop SMU, Marshall and Loyola, giving Tulane its first four-game winning streak since the 2002-03 season. During that stretch, the Green Wave has held opponents to just 46.5 points per game and 28.9 percent shooting from the field.

"We are doing a lot of good things defensively," Dickerson said. "You can have one or two guys really playing hard on defense, but what you need is the entire team playing hard and that is what we have right now. We need to maintain that intensity while learning to translate those stops into points on the offensive end of the court."

Tulane has held eight opponents below 60 points this season and five times, foes have shot below 30 percent from the floor. The school record for field-goal percentage defense is 39.9 percent, set in 1960-61. This year, opponents are shooting 38.3 percent against the Wave.

While the recent stretch has been impressive, Tulane remains a team with just one win away from Fogelman Arena. While opponents are scoring just 53.5 points per game against the Wave in New Orleans, on the road, Tulane foes average 72.0 points per game.

UCF, which has gone to two straight NCAA Tournaments, is another of the Conference USA newcomers. The Golden Knights come into Saturday's game with a 9-11 overall record, including 3-4 in league play. UCF has a pair of solid road wins this year, defeating Houston and East Carolina (its other league win was at home against Tulsa), but currently the Knights have dropped three in a row - one to No. 3 Memphis, one to league power UAB and most recently a 59-51 loss on the road to Southern Miss on Wednesday. Josh Peppers, a 6-6 junior forward, leads UCF with 12.4 points per game, including a team-best 37 three-pointers. Justin Rose, a 6-3 guard, has 11.2 points and a team-best 6.1 rebounds per game while 6-8 senior Anthony Williams also has double figures with 10.1 points per outing.

"UCF is a very good team," Dickerson said. "The have made the NCAAs in each of the last two years; they have a very experienced coach and they play very well at home. My biggest concern is that they will be the best shooting team we have played this year."

UCF, which is 7-4 at home, ranks second in Conference USA in three-point percentage at 35.2 percent. The Knights have five different players who have hit 10 or more three-pointers this year.

Tulane is being led by senior center Quincy Davis, who is averaging 15.4 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks per game over the last eight games. The Los Angeles native piled up a season-best 25 points on Feb. 1 to lead the Green Wave to victory over SMU and last Saturday against Marshall, he snagged his 500th career rebound. Following an 18-point effort in 24 minutes against Loyola, he needs just 14 points to become the 27th 1,000-point scorer in school history and just the 14th player in Tulane history to record 1,000 points and 500 rebounds in his career.

Following the UCF game, Tulane travels to Birmingham to battle UAB on Wednesday evening. The Wave returns home next Saturday, hosting No. 3 Memphis at 7 p.m. at Fogelman Arena. For ticket information for all Green Wave athletic events, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office in Fogelman Arena at 504-247-1240 or 1241.