Tulane women’s basketball (3-1, 0-0 American Athletic Conference) held onto its unofficial title of top dog in Louisiana as the squad bested the LSU Tigers 67-63 Monday night in Devlin Fieldhouse. Of the last six meetings between the in-state rivals, five of them belong to the Wave now.

The night started slowly for Tulane. After trailing 6-4 briefly two minutes in, LSU surged ahead, leading by as much as nine points with three minutes left in the first period. At the completion of the first quarter, the Tigers held the advantage 19-13 as Tulane struggled with cold shooting, hitting just 38.5% of its shots compared to LSU’s 53.8.

The second period saw the first shift in gears. After LSU outscored Tulane 10-0 in the paint in the first quarter, Tulane turned around and seized control on the inside in the second, outscoring the Tigers 14-8 in the paint and grabbing 11 boards, four more than LSU’s 7. The effort was enough to pull the Wave in even with the Tigers, heading into halftime tied at 33 each.

Tulane came out of the locker room after half ready to claim the court. Taking advantage of the tied game, the Wave quickly took the lead with a 6-0 run by junior guard Courtnie Latham. Latham’s run sparked the energy in the entire fieldhouse, and the crowd excitement, evenly divided between the two schools, began favoring the Wave as those in green stood up and those in purple sat down.

In the final minutes of the third, sophomore guard Kolby Morgan overpowered two defenders to make a strongly contested layup and drew the foul. The crowd erupted, and senior forward Tierra Jones went wild on the sideline.

Tulane rolled right past LSU in the third, knocking down 18 points while holding the Tigers to a meager 4. Latham claimed 8 of those Tulane points, propelling the Wave to its 14 point lead entering the final quarter.

LSU’s offense, which had gone cold midway through the second quarter, revived itself a little in the final five minutes of play, but it proved too little, too late.

In terms of shooting, the stat lines varied little between the teams with Tulane hitting 22 of 54 and LSU hitting 23 of 56, with both teams hitting four 3s. The stat lines and final score don’t show the imbalance between the teams’ performances; the Wave looked like the more determined team in every aspect and that grit ultimately pushed the squad to its dominating win.

“Getting this momentum was really important,” head coach Lisa Stockton stated. “We play some really good opponents coming up this week, and it’s nice to have a little momentum and confidence going into that. It probably takes a little pressure off the next game. We were disappointed about Florida State but we were able to come back tonight and secure the win.

The Wave heads to the Virgin Islands this week to participate in the Paradise Jam tournament. Tulane takes on Rutgers at 2:15 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, followed by Green Bay on Friday and Virginia Saturday.