GAME NOTES: The second-seeded Tulsa Golden Hurricane will make their American Athletic Conference Tournament debut in Friday's quarterfinal round, as they square off with the 10th-seeded Houston Cougars at XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut.

The winner will advance to the semifinals on Saturday to face either UConn or Cincinnati.

Houston took on No. 7 seed Tulane in Thursday's opening round, and prevailed in a 66-60 final. The victory was the fourth straight for the Cougars, the current run coming on the heels of a six-game losing streak. As it is, Houston is 13-18 on the season, and moved to 2-1 in AAC Tournament action.

At 21-9 overall and 14-4 in conference, Tulsa narrowly lost out on the No. 1 seed in this event to SMU, but being the second seed garnered the team a first-round bye. The Golden Hurricane, last year's Conference USA champs, are hoping to put the brakes on a two-game slide after dropping bouts to both Cincinnati and SMU to close out the regular season.

Tulsa leads the all-time series with Houston, 25-21, and the Golden Hurricane have won the last five meetings.

Jherrod Stiggers poured in 23 points, and Cavon Baker came off the bench to score 20 more, as Houston topped Tulane in the first round of the AAC Tournament on Thursday. Stiggers (14.4 ppg), who is UH's leading scorer this season, drained half of his 10 shots from 3-point range, the team going 9- of-23 from distance in the game. Overall, the Cougars shot 47.8 percent from the floor, went 13-of-15 at the free-throw line, and easily won the rebounding battle, 36-25. The Green Wave shot just 41.1 percent from the field. Devonte Pollard (11.3 ppg), the only other player for Houston averaging double digits in the scoring column this season, tallied 12 points to go with his team-high five assists.

Despite having a couple of top-line performers in James Woodard (14.9 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and Shaquille Harrison (13.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 3.7 apg), Tulsa is anything but an offensive juggernaut, the team putting up only 65.2 ppg. Instead, the Golden Hurricane rely on sound defensive play, as opponents are netting only 60.5 ppg, with that figure dropping to 58.6 ppg against AAC foes. Tulsa held Houston to roughly 33 percent shooting in the two games played between the teams during the regular season, while the Golden Hurricane were 48.5 percent efficient.

Despite what will likely be a spirited effort from Stiggers and his cohorts, expect Tulsa to come out fired up to make a statement in its first AAC Tournament game.