Parker leads the Wolf Pack with 17 points on 4-of-10 shooting from the floor.
The Loyola University New Orleans men's basketball team fell to the Tulane University 80-58 in the annual Battle of Freret Street on Thursday night. Nick Parker (JR/Port Allen, La.) led the Pack with 17 points, all of which came in the second half. Johnny Griffin Jr. (SR/Chicago, IL.) added 16 points and seven rebounds and Jalen Gray (SR/New Orleans, La.) chipped in 12 points in the road loss. Parker also had three steals to lead the Wolf Pack, while Gray led the team with three assists.
Both teams came out of the gate sluggish. The scoreboard was halted at 15-12 during a five minute stretch of the first half. A free throw by Cameron Reynolds gave the Green Wave a four-point lead at 16-12 with 9:58 to go in the half. The Wolf Pack would not score another basket until a layup by Griffin Jr. at 7:26 brought the score to 16-14. The Green Wave responded with back-to-back buckets by Malik Morgan to push the lead to seven (21-14) in the closing minutes of the first half. Tulane outscored the Wolf Pack 15-10 to end the half, to bring the score to 35-22 heading into the locker room.
Loyola got a big lift from Parker in the second half, who scored his first field goal in the paint at the 18:53 mark. But the Green Wave used a big run at the 10-minute mark of the game to increase the lead to 16. Tulane would go on to beat Loyola 80-58 in their opening exhibition game of the season.
The Pack shot 37 percent (20-of-53) from the floor and 16.7 percent (3-of-18) from beyond the arc. The team also shot just 62 percent from the free throw line (15-of-24) in the loss.
Loyola will hit the road once again with a matchup against Selma University on Saturday, Nov. 5, with tip-off set for 4:00 p.m.
