TULSA, Okla. — East Carolina hit the wall in the Conference USA women’s basketball tournament Wednesday night, falling behind Tulane immediately in the semifinal round and never tying or leading the game in a 73-64 setback.

The Lady Pirates (22-10) had beaten Southern Miss and Memphis to advance to the semifinals.

“I would just like to say that Tulane has a great basketball team and should be considered for the NCAA tournament, regardless if they win the conference tourney or not,” ECU head coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener said. “They are the best defensive team that we have played all season. I was especially proud of the way our freshmen stepped in and really gave us a lift in the second half. I think our season deserves to continue in the WNIT.”

The WNIT’s 64-team field will be announced Monday evening.

The Green Wave (25-6) boasted four double-digit scorers in the wire-to-wire win, led by the 19-point effort of Danielle Nunn. Tiffany Aidoo, who was 4-for-6 from behind the arc, added 16 points and seven rebounds. Roshaunda Barnes chipped in 14 and Brett Benzio 10 for Tulane.

ECU, conversely, had no scorers in double figures, as Allison Spivey finished with nine points and Kim Gay added eight points and eight boards. Caitlin Thys came off the bench to add nine points.

A 14-point haltime deficit quickly grew to 20 for the Lady Pirates at the onset of the second half, as Aidoo hit consecutive 3s to make it 47-27 Green Wave within the first two minutes of the second period.

Trailing 58-39 with 11:53 to play, ECU tried time and again to chip away at the Tulane lead, but it hovered near 20 until the game’s late minutes.

Spivey connected on a 3-pointer with 4:05 left in the game to trim the deficit back to 14, 69-55, for the first time since the end of the first half.

Celeste Stewart’s free throw made it 69-56 with 3:25 left, and Thys knocked down a jumper to make it an 11-point game at 69-58, part of a late 8-0 ECU run.

But it was the last gasp for the Lady Pirates, who out-rebounded Tulane, 35-32.

The Green Wave finished the game shooting 51 percent from the floor compared to 43.5 percent for ECU.

Tulane built its biggest lead of the first half, 14 points, just before the intermission. Indira Kaljo knocked down the Green Wave’s fourth 3-pointer with five ticks left to give her team a comfortable 41-27 lead heading into the break.

That capped an opening 20 minutes in which the Wave shot 53 percent to ECU’s 40.

Chareya Smith led ECU with seven points at the break, while Tulane got 11 from Nunn and 10 apiece from Barnes and Aidoo.

The Green Wave jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first four minutes of play.

Kelly Smith’s 3-pointer from the right corner put ECU on the board with 15:48 to play in the opening half, but Barnes answered immediately to keep Tulane’s cushion at eight points, 11-3.

ECU cashed in on a couple of Tulane turnovers and cut the lead to three points for the first and only time all night as Chareya Smith converted a couple of shots inside to make it 23-20 Wave with 6:03 left in the half.

The half went downhill from there for ECU, as Tulane finished on an 21-4 run.