A season of firsts for the Troy women’s basketball team added another chapter Friday afternoon in Hot Springs, Ark. at the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. This season saw Troy pick up its first ever win over Middle Tennessee, set a school record for points in a game and scored the program’s first ever ESPN win.

Troy rallied from as many as fifteen points down in the first half, pick up the program’s first ever win in Hot Springs, 62-49 over rival South Alabama.

Troy coach Chanda Rigby said she believes that her team has “grown up” a lot during the season.

“It is huge for us,” said Rigby. “There was a time this season where I don’t think our girls could come back from a fifteen-point deficit. This win shows the progress that they have made as young women.”

Troy took its first lead of the game on a Sarah McAppion jump shot with 14:19 to go in the game.

McAppion, a senior, sent out a Tweet prior to the game saying that she was going to play her heart out, and play she did. The Aussie Trojan notched a double-double in the game with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Rigby said that the McAppion played a big role in the come-from-behind win.

“She did an amazing job tonight,” said Rigby. “She was definetly not ready for her career to be over with, and was an excellent leader out there today.”

Troy out scored the Jaguars down the stretch , and were outpacing their instate rival 21-2 during the middle minutes.

The hot-shooting Jags cooled off in the final minutes of the game, and hit just one of their final six three pointers. South Alabama started the game by hitting six of 11.

Troy will take on second-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. The game can bee seen live on CSS.

Troy and UALR have played twice this season, with UALR winning both matchups.

“We are definetly proud to be here,” said Rigby. “We have to get a good game plan together in the hotel room and try to do things better than we have two previous times this year.”