GAME NOTES: The Houston Cougars and Tulane Green Wave hook up in the first round of the American Athletic Conference Tournament on Thursday at XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

In their first season in the AAC, the Green Wave won only a third of their conference tilts, going 6-12 to finish seventh in the standings. Houston is the No. 10 seed after avoiding the basement by winning its final three regular-season games, going 4-14 in league play.

One of those wins came at Tulane just over a week ago, as the Cougars eked out a 68-63 overtime decision. Tulane won the first meeting of the season on Jan. 17 by a similar score of 68-65, although that came in regulation.

Thursday's winner advances to the quarterfinals to take on second-seeded Tulsa on Friday night.

These two were former rivals in Conference USA and previously met twice in the league tournament. Tulsa won both matchups, although the all-time series is even at 16-16.

Houston's offense has come on strong during the past two weeks. After averaging 64.1 points over the first 27 games, the Cougars are netting 70.7 during the last three. Jherrod Stiggers contributed to the recent upswing, just as he has all season. He leads the team in scoring at 14.1 ppg, has knocked down the most 3-pointers in the league (90) and is among the conference leaders in free-throw percentage (.769). Devonta Pollard and Danard Knowles are solid second options, averaging 11.3 and 10.2 ppg, respectively, while Pollard also pulls down 6.3 rpg.

Tulane enters the tournament in a downward spiral, although the Green Wave did upend South Florida in their regular-season finale. Before that, however, they were mired in a 1-10 stretch that saw them score over 60 points just once -- in the aforementioned overtime loss to Houston.

Despite the recent slump, Louis Dabney was named a member of the All-AAC Second Team after averaging 13.9 ppg. The junior guard is hitting a solid 38.5 percent of his 3-point attempts and is a 78.1-percent foul shooter. Jay Hook and Jonathan Stark are also scoring in double figures for the Green Wave. Hook, the team's leading rebounder at 4.9 rpg, is logging 10.9 ppg, just ahead of Stark's 10.7 ppg.

The last time these teams met, Houston rallied from a 10-point deficit midway through the second half and escaped with its only conference road win of the season. Stiggers and Pollard both notched 17 points, and Cavon Baker netted 11 points for the Cougars. The Cougars went 9-of-10 at the charity stripe in OT and were 26-of-33 overall (.788) at the stripe. Tulane shot a paltry 10-of-19 from the line.

Houston is the hotter team coming into this elimination game and is probably playing its best ball of the season. Unless Dabney and Co. can regain their form from a month ago, the Cougars have every right to feel confident they can advance.