MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Memphis coach John Calipari wanted the stars on his fifth-ranked team to take the spotlight.
They did that Thursday night, helping the Tigers easily move into the semifinals of the Conference USA Tournament.
League Player of the Year Rodney Carney had 18 points, Darius Washington added 15 points and Freshman of the Year Shawne Williams scored 13 to help top-seeded Memphis beat Tulane 75-56.
"When you win, this is what happens. Everyone kind of shines a little bit," Calipari said. "These guys are doing a pretty good job of performing at a high level.
"I thought they played loose. I thought they just came out and played."
Memphis (28-3) benefited from an aggressive defense and great outside shooting, going 11-of-28 from outside the arc.
The performance was much better than the Tigers' last three games, when they were taken to the wire at home by Tulsa and Houston and lost at UAB, their only loss in the last 18 games.
"The thing I'm most pleased with was I thought you saw an intensity level and an effort level that we haven't had for a couple of weeks," Calipari said. "Second of all, there were things we prepared to do, and we executed them. ... It was some good stuff."
Chris Moore led the Green Wave (12-17) with 21 points, including 19 in the second half, and nine rebounds. Quincy Davis scored 19 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Donnie Stith finished with 10 points.
"They got up by a lot, and we got down," Moore said. "It's honestly hard when you get down that much to come back and make a run like we did in the second half. We made a run, but I felt like at the beginning, I don't know if we were pressing too much, or we were nervous or what it was. We just had too many turnovers in the first half, and it hurt us a lot."
Tulane, which beat Marshall 64-58 in Wednesday's opening round, never could get going after falling behind 9-0 to start the game. Memphis built the lead to 30 in the latter stages of the first half. The Green Wave didn't get the second-half deficit under 20 until the final minutes, when Memphis was playing its deep reserves.
Memphis took a 47-19 halftime lead.
"I really wanted to come out with great energy on the defensive end," Carney said. "Defense starts everything. It led to some free throws, a couple of run-throughs and a couple of dunks."
The defense caused 20 turnovers, nine on steals, leading to 23 first-half points.
Carney had 13 points to lead Memphis in the first half, while Washington scored nine, including back-to-back 3-pointers in the final 1:07, giving the Tigers their biggest lead of the half at 47-17.
Tulane's 19 points was its lowest output for a half this season.
Davis had eight of Tulane's points and was the only offensive threat for the Green Wave. David Gomez, who led Tulane in its opening round win with 21 points and 10 rebounds, missed nine of his 11 shots and committed six turnovers. He finished with four points.
The only Memphis lull came midway through the second half. After building the lead to 65-28, Moore connected on a trio of 3-pointers and Davis scored inside to key a 17-0 run by the Green Wave.
But that only cut the Memphis lead to 65-45.
"This is what we've done all year," Tulane coach Dave Dickerson said. "The thing we talked about at halftime was to give ourselves a chance to walk out with our heads held high, and the only way we could do that was giving the maximum effort. The guys did that. After the first half, that's the only thing you can ask for."
