straight at home 66-56

By BRIAN PUCKETT

Sports Writer

The Troy State Lady Trojans (4-4) were handed their forth loss of the season Sunday afternoon by the Minnesota Golden Gophers 66-56.

Lady Trojan star Abby Boone was not in the line-up for the Sunday showdown due to an ailing knee.

"She is going to see the doctor tomorrow, and she wasn’t able to practice with us this past week, so we just kept her out for this game," TSU head coach Jerry Hester said. "Boone, this season has scored double figures in six of the Trojans’ first seven games, leads the team in total points scored in a game (26 points), 3-pointers made in a game (6), free throws in a game (9), and rebounds in a game (10).

"She is a major asset to our team, but we have to know that we are able to play without her if needed," Hester said.

To start the game, Troy State couldn’t contain Minnesota, with the Golden Gophers knocking down their first five shots, three of them being 3-pointers. While half of the Lady Trojans’ first points were from free throws.

"We were just under-matched with them down low" Hester said.

The Lady Trojans were able to cut the lead down to one with 8:52 left in the first half, when Chandra Bradford drained a 3-pointer, but Troy State was always one point behind, and was never able to grab the lead from the Gophers.

Troy State was down 28-36 at the intermission and to start the second period, the Gophers went on a 10-0 run, stretching their lead out to 28-46.

The Golden Gopher 3-point shooting was so hot that with only four-and-a-half minutes into the second half they had set a new school record of 3-pointers made. They had 14 treys in the game. The Lady Trojans were unable to put any points on the board until 14:42 left in the game.

The Lady Trojans then went on a hot streak with a 16-2 run on the Golden Gophers. Troy State was able to cut the lead down to six with 2:27 left to go in the game, but wouldn’t get any closer.

Sharin Milner lead the Lady Trojans in scoring with 15, followed by Bradford 14, and Sarah Degrandi with 10. The Lady Trojans only shot 37 percent from the field and were 67 percent from the charity stripe.

"We won’t play again until after Christmas, so we will have a little break" Hester said. The lady Trojans game with Coppin State on December 28 has been canceled, so they will next face Texas-Pan America on the 30 of December in Trojan Arena.