JU rolls in 103-93 shoot out

By STEVEN G. WATSON

Sports Editor

Anytime a team’s star player has a career night they’d like to think the conclusion of the contest would be a favorable one.

For the Troy State Trojans that wasn’t the case Saturday night as they dropped their second straight Trans America Athletic Conference game 103-93 to the Jacksonville University Dolphins.

The matchup was a shooting duel for the most part. Troy State (14-8 overall, 10-3 in TAAC play) was led by a possessed Detric Golden who torched the Dolphin defense for 45 points, eight assists and was an amazing 15-of-20 from the field and 6-of-8 from 3-point land. That’s not mentioning his 100 percent night from the free throw line hitting all nine chances.

The problem for the Trojans came in the dynamic shooting of Jacksonville (8-13, 5-8) that had two players score more than 20 points on the night. Brandon Williams finished with a team-high 29 for the Dolphins, while forward Calvin Slaughter added 24 and Shawn Platts notched a double-double with 17 points and 10 assists.

Both teams shot incredible percentages on the night with hitting 72 percent from the field in the second half to finish at almost a 65 percent clip for the game. TSU also finished above 50 percent and bolstered their already incredible team percentage from beyond the 3-point line with a 59.1 percent performance hitting 13-of-22.

The Trojans who trailed only 45-43 at the half cut the lead to three with under six minutes to go, but never got any closer. Williams caught fire and scored 12 of his team-high in the final five minutes giving the Dolphins the win.

Next up for the Trojans are their final two home games of the season. Thursday they will play host TAAC cellar dweller Florida Atlantic (1-20, 0-12) and Saturday Central Florida (9-14, 7-5) comes to town. The two games will be key as Troy State tries to seal up a No. 1 seed in the upcoming TAAC Tournament by nabbing the regular season championship.

Tipoff for both games are set for 7 p.m. at Trojan Arena.