Junior guard Louis Dabney may have scored a season and career-high 32 points, but it wasn’t enough for Tulane (14-13, 5-10 American Athletic Conference) to beat Tulsa (20-7, 13-2 AAC) in Tulsa, Oklahoma. 

Dabney set the tone early, scoring 17 of the Wave’s 26 points in the first half. The Hurricane’s balanced attack and zone defense, however, proved too much for the Wave. 

The Wave went into halftime trailing by eight, coming out flat to start the second. 

“In my mind we just stopped defending,” head coach Ed Conroy said. “Our defensive execution late in the first half and in the second half was just not what it needs to be.” 

Tulsa outscored the Wave by 13 points in the second half, led by an offensive explosion by Hurricane junior guard James Woodard, who finished with 18 points off 54.5 percent shooting. 

Excluding Dabney’s hot shooting night, the Wave shot a combined 21.4 percent from the floor. Tulane’s second and third leading season scorers, sophomore guard Jonathan Stark and senior guard Jay Hook shot a combined 4 for 20 from the floor, making 1 of 12 shots from deep. 

The defeat marks the eighth loss in the last nine games after starting season 13-5. 

“I give Tulsa a lot of credit,” Conroy said. “They are an outstanding team and played like it tonight.”

The Wave has three more regular season games before the AAC tournament to turn its luck around. It next plays Cincinnati 1 p.m Saturday at Devlin Fieldhouse.