Charlotte (18-10), the defending tournament champion, will play No. 5 Cincinnati in the semifinals. Charlotte lost both of its regular-season games against Cincinnati.

Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins sat courtside, munching on pretzels while doing a little firsthand scouting after the Bearcats easily handled South Florida 79-57 in the earlier game.

Thomas, the conference's career 3-point leader, made 6-of-11 from behind the arc and set a school season record with 108. He also made four free throws in the final 1:40 as Charlotte held on.

Tulane (14-15) got a career-high 22 points and 14 rebounds from Linton Johnson and dominated in rebounds 40-29, but couldn't overcome Charlotte's 10-of-21 shooting on 3s.

Tulane lost its last four regular-season games and shot 20.6 percent from the field in a first-round tournament win over Saint Louis, but managed to stay with the defending tournament champion in the first half Thursday night.

There were seven ties and seven lead changes as neither team could get into a flow. Thomas hit four of his first five 3-point shots to supply most of Charlotte's offense.

Charlotte put together the best run of the half, closing with an 8-0 spurt that gave the 49ers a 35-29 halftime lead. Kevin Johnson had a three-point play to start the run.

Demon Brown's 3-pointer gave Charlotte its biggest lead, 45-34, early in the second half. Tulane cut it to 53-50 with 7:48 left on Wayne Tinsley's driving basket and a pair of free throws by Brandon Spann, but the comeback ended there.

Thomas' 3-pointer with 3:59 left rebuilt the lead to 61-53, and Charlotte made 11-of-12 from the free-throw line the rest of the way to hold on.