Tulane men's basketball coach Ron Hunter was even more intense than usual early in the second half on Wednesday night, stomping his foot and screaming for his team to pick up its defensive intensity.

He did not need to worry. Shackling Rice nearly from start to finish, the Green Wave won its American Athletic Conference opener at home 84-59, leading by double digits for all but 57 seconds during the final 26 minutes. The Owls missed 22 of their first 27 shots and finished 19 of 60 (31.7 percent) from the floor with 14 turnovers against an amped-up opponent.

“That was the defense that I’ve been looking for all year,” Hunter said. “When we play defense like that, we’re a really good team. Today these guys gave me a great Christmas present. For 40 minutes defensively we were really good. We took them out of what they wanted to do.”

Less than two weeks ago, George Mason cut an 11-point halftime deficit to 1 before the first media timeout on the way to a comeback victory against Tulane (10-3, 1-0). Despite scoring eight of the first 10 points in the second half to pull within 39-32, Rice (6-8, 0-1) had no such run in it.

The Owls entered with the unfortunate combo platter of shooting the third-most 3-pointers in the AAC while ranking 280th out of 351 Division I teams in 3-point accuracy (31.0 percent), and Tulane made sure they stuck to that losing formula. Their first seven shots were from behind the arc, and they hit only one of them.

When they tried to go inside, they fared even worse. Fifth-year senior forward Max Fiedler, who was averaging 10.1 points while hitting at least half of his attempts in every game, went scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting. It was the first time sinch 2019-20 that he took more than one shot without hitting any, and he even tried his first 3 of the season late in the second half, clanging it off the side of the rim.

Tulane, which is seventh nationally in scoring, had plenty enough offense to take advantage. Collin Holloway led all five starters in double figures with 18 points, including four driving lay-ups in the first four minutes of the second half when the Wave went on a 10-0 run to go ahead 49-32. He found a cutting Asher Woods for a lay-up a little later and sparked a decisive 20-2 spurt with a tough-angle lefty bank shot that turned into a 4-point play when he was fouled, missed the free throw and teammate Sion James put it back with his own acrobatic lay-up.

“I felt good,” Holloway said. “This guy next to me (Hunter) yells at me a lot to not settle. I tried not to settle. I also tell my teammates not to settle, so I have to go out there and do the same thing.”

The positives went almost across the board. Kevin Cross exhibited his full repertoire, scoring 16 points with 10 rebounds and five assists while hitting an array of shots that would be tough for most players but not for him. He started with a running jump hook to erase Rice’s only lead—2-0—and added a fadeaway turnaround, a jumper in the lane off the dribble and a follow of his own miss in the first half.

Point guard Kolby King had 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists. James added 12 points, six assists and five rebounds. Jaylen Forbes contributed 12 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Even the bench helped out more than the box score indicated despite the absence of sixth man Tre’ Williams, who sat out with a sprained ankle. Gregg Glenn was all over the floor, hustling to steal an offensive rebound that led to a Forbes 3 that gave the Wave a 34-17 lead in the first half. Woods hit his first two shots and was active defensively.

“We got better when Asher and Gregg came in the game,” Hunter said. “For a guy who hadn’t played a lot this year, for Asher to come in and take some of Tre’s minutes was really big.”

Tulane’s next test is Saturday at 2022-23 NIT champion North Texas (7-5), which plays its first-ever AAC game Thursday night at Wichita State.

Hunter certainly liked what he saw from his guys on Wednesday night. The Wave scored 10 in a row in the first half to go up 34-17, 10 in a row early in the second half to make the score 49-32 and 13 in a row down the stretch, never letting the Owls breathe.

“They played like a veteran team in the AAC,” he said. “That was what was exciting to me. We’ve been through a lot of wars together, and you could just tell. It was almost like this team was waiting for the league season to start. I haven’t seen us play with that much energy really all year."