Trojans rebound with road win over Samford

Staff

Published Saturday, February 23, 2002

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Troy State men's basketball team ended its 28 year drought in Birmingham, beating Atlantic Sun Conference rival Samford, 64-52, at Seibert Hall on Thursday night.

Lamayn Wilson scored a game-high 29 points and tied his career-high with 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the year. Wilson was 11-of-19 from the field, going 5-of-8 from behind the arc, tying his career-high for three pointers.

The last time the Trojans defeated Samford in Birmingham was on Dec. 9, 1974, when TSU came away with a 79-68 win. Since then, the Trojans had lost four straight at Seibert Hall.

"We played a complete basketball game tonight," said Troy State head coach Don Maestri. "We came out and got good shots and didn't turn the ball over. I am really impressed with how well our team played the game of basketball tonight."

Wilson scored 22 points in the first half, scorching the nets by hitting 9-of-"Lamayn came out and gave out team a spark," Maestri said. "He shot the ball really well which gave our team some confidence and it spread to everyone on the team."

The Troy State offense showed out in the first half, hitting 59.3 percent of its shots from the floor, going 8-of-12 from behind the arc. The TSU defense also did its part, holding the Bulldogs to just 34 percent the floor, going 18-of-53.

"We did a great job on defense of communicating," Maestri said. "Our guys talked a lot and got out on the shooters really well. We also did a great job on the inside and blocked a lot of shots which forced them to change some things."

The Trojans (17-9, 13-6 A-Sun) jumped out to an 18-12 lead on back-to-back three pointers by Wilson.

Samford (14-13, 11-8 A-Sun) came back, cutting the lead to one, 18-17 on a three-pointer by Cornell Felton with just over nine minutes left in the first half.

Troy State countered with a run of its own, going on 12-2 run, with Wilson scoring six points, to put TSU on top 30-19 with just over five minutes left.

The two teams would exchange baskets, with Troy State taking a 12 point lead at one point, before going into the locker room with a 30-19 lead at the half.

Troy State came flying out of the locker room, going on a 8-1 run to take a 48-32 lead on a free throw by Rob Lewin with 17:49 left in the game.

Samford would cut the lead to six, 53-47, on a three pointer by Phillip Ramelli in the corner, with just under seven minutes left in the game.

But that would be as close as the Bulldogs would get, with Troy State going 7-of-8 from the free throw line in the final minute to seal the 64-52 win.

Robert Rushing added 17 points and six assists for the Trojans.

Chris Weaver led the Bulldogs with 17 points and Felton scored 12 in the loss.

With the win, the Trojans travel to face archrival Jacksonville State on Saturday with a shot at a share of the A-Sun regular season championship on the line.

"Jax State is a completely different team than the one we faced tonight," Maestri said. "They have changed a lot since the first time we played and we are going to play very well to win."

Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. in Jacksonville on Saturday night.

 

 

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