Fresh off its first conference win, Tulane men’s basketball heads back home to face American Athletic Conference first-ranked SMU at 2 p.m. Sunday in Fogelman Arena at Devlin Fieldhouse. 

Tulane is currently 8-10 and 1-4 in the conference, following its most recent win against University of Southern Florida on Tuesday. The win against USF was the first conference win of the season for the Green Wave.

The Wave snapped a four-game losing streak with the win and heads back home to face the Mustangs in Tulane’s sixth straight conference game.

The last face-off between Tulane and SMU resulted in a 66-52 loss after a close competition where former senior guard Nic Moore scored 18 points. Current senior guard Louis Dabney led the Green Wave with 16 points while never missing a free throw. 

SMU is currently ranked No. 10 in The Associated Press Top 25 Poll and is undefeated, sitting at a perfect 15-0 record. The team is first in the American Athletic Conference at a perfect 4-0 with wins against fellow conference teams like Tulsa and Cincinnati.

The Mustangs have outscored opponents by combined overall scores of 1224 to 941, scoring an average of 81.6 points per game. Nic Moore leads the team with a 16.1 average points per game, followed by teammates Ben Moore and Jordan Tolbert with 13.1 and 12.6 average points respectively.

This season, Tulane’s players have averaged 66 points per game — two points higher than last season — with Dabney leading the team with an average of 12.8 points per game. Redshirt junior guard Malik Morgan and sophomore forward Dylan Osetkowski follow with 11.4 and 10.4 points, while Osetkowski also leads the team in rebounds with 9.1.

Osetkowski has notched seven double-doubles this season, the highest of anyone on the team, including a two back-to-back against USF and Tulsa.

Graduate student forward Jernard Jarreau and Morgan have also earned one double-double a piece in their games against Tulsa and Mississippi State.

This will be Tulane’s last home game before heading back on the road to face Connecticut Tues., Jan. 19 and Cincinnati on Jan. 24.