NEW ORLEANS - Bethune-Cookman suffered its second  65-55 loss in as many games Tuesday, this time to Tulane before 1,651 at Devlin Fieldhouse in the first game of the Joe Cipriano Nebraska Classic.

In a game similar in some way to its season opening loss at St. Bonaventure, B-CU (0-2) cut a double-digit deficit to a two-possession game, as Kevin Dukes hit a three-pointer with 4:05 remaining to cut Tulane's lead to 57-53 before the Green Wave (1-1) used an 8-2 run to close the game.

Ricky Tarrant scored 21 points for Tulane, who went to the free throw line 35 times to B-CU's seven.

Dukes led the Wildcats with 13 points, while Mikel Trapp hit a career-high 12 - all on three pointers - and Adrien Coleman added 11 points and eight rebounds.

Trapp hit three from behind the arc in the first half as B-CU took a 22-13 lead with 11:32 remaining before Tulane (1-1)  rallied for a 37-31 halftime lead.

HEAD COACH GRAVELLE CRAIG: "We talked about finishing the game, and we didn't finish tonight ...  in that sense, we didn't make progress.  You have to learn to play through fouls on the road. We made too many turnovers; we got it down to six and then made turnovers on four straight possessions. You can't do that against a Conference USA team. They had 27 points off turnovers."

ON MIKEL TRAPP: He played solid.  He has to do a couple of little things to help us with handling the ball, but he played solid."

MIKEL TRAPP:  "I was making shots in the first half. We have to learn how to handle the ball in crunch time."

NOTES: Dukes finished with three three-pointers and now has hit a three-pointer in 21 straight games ... Alex Smith matched Coleman's eight rebounds and also had his second game with three blocks ... B-CU outshot Tulane 38.6 percent to 32.7 percent from the field. Next up is New Orleans Thursday.