Conference USA Tournament Opening Round: No. 7 Tulsa ended No. 10 East Carolina’s season with a 66-49 win in the opening round. The Golden Hurricane advances to play No. 2 Alabama-Birmingham. Sophomore center Jerome Jordan led Tulsa with 18 points. The Pirates were off all day, shooting only 28.3 percent from the field.
No. 6 UTEP dominated No. 11 SMU 71-49 to setup a quarterfinal game against No. 3 Houston, which the MIners beat Saturday. UTEP hit 12 three-pointers, including seven from freshman guard Randy Culepper, who led the Miners with 25 points off the bench.
No. 9 Tulane beat No. 8 Marshall 48-47 thanks to sophomore guard Kevin Sims, who hit two free throws with less than seven seconds remaining to give the Green Wave the win. Sims finished with a team-high 14 points. Marshall shot 36.4 percent from the field. Tulane will play No. 1 Memphis in the quarterfinals.
No. 5 Southern Miss won an ugly 59-50 opening round game against No. 12 Rice to move into the quarterfinals against No. 4 Central Florida. Both teams shot worse than 37 percent from the field. Sophomore guard Jeremy Wise led the Golden Eagles with 23 points, nine of them coming from the free throw line. Rice finished the season 3-27. [3/12/08]
