For the second time in two games to start the season, Tulane men’s basketball went to overtime Monday in Devlin Fieldhouse, squeaking its first win of the season against Drake 79-74.

Athletics had a bit of fun before the game, selling Drake inspired t-shirts. No, not the school, but the rapper. 

Students get these shirts when they come to tonight’s game against Drake at 7pm. pic.twitter.com/FaU6W3JJ3x

— Hullabaloo Sports (@hullsports) November 16, 2015

Drake came out unamused, and took the lead from the start, and the Wave had to claw its way back for the majority of the first half.

Transfer graduate student forward Jernard Jerreau set the tone early, scoring 10 points off 3-6 shooting, one from deep, which led all scorers at the half. 

Though the Wave started sluggish, it headed to the locker room with a 35-33 lead. Senior guard Louis Dabney, Tulane’s leading scorer last season, started 1-5, scoring 6 points and turning the ball over 3 times. 

Tulane clawed its way back in the second half after Drake took its largest lead of the evening, with a eight point lead, with seven minutes to play in the contest. 

Junior center Ryan Smith provided some added punch in the second half, and finished with four offensive rebounds in six minutes, snagging 6 points off of 3-6 shooting in the most productive stat line of the night.

With 3:17 remaining, freshman guard Kain Harris picked up a loose ball on a fast break, and tied the game at 61-61. Soon after, redshirt junior guard Malik Morgan took the lead with two minutes remaining off an acrobatic contested lay-in. 

After a Drake fadeaway corner three, which sent several empty front row chairs tumbling over, the Knights tied the game at 67. Dabney then hit a pair of free throws to reclaim the lead, but the defense gave up a beautiful pocket pass from Drake’s guard Graham Woodward to forward Dominik Olejniczak for an easy layup, which tied the game at 69. 

Morgan had an open three as time expired, but his shot was long, and Tulane went to overtime. Tulane struck first in extra time and eventually edged out the win. 

“I would have loved to hit that last one at the end [of regulation],” Morgan said. “I wanted come out in overtime and stay aggressive like the whole game.” 

Dabney logged 39 minutes, finished 4-15 with 18 points, with Morgan matching him with 18 points off 7-14 shooting off 40 minutes of play. 

“It feels great to have a win that the whole team contributed to,” Dabney said. “That says a lot about this team and how hard we work every day and the type of fighters we have on this team.” 

Tulane had 17 second chance points off of 16 offensive rebounds, compared to Drake’s nine second chance points off its 11 offensive boards. 

The Wave shot 41.8 percent from the field, 35.3 percent from three, but shot a measly 58.6 percent from the charity stripe. 

“I’m really proud of this group,” head coach Ed Conroy said. “I thought it was a heck of a team effort.”