Sports Editor

Troy State head women’s basketball coach Jerry Hester can breath a little easier for awhile.

The Lady Trojans (2-2) dropped their first two games of the year, but responded with two straight wins over Atlantic Sun opponents Jacksonville and Stetson.

Troy State travels to Birmingham-Southern (4-3) on Saturday and will play at the Bearcat Invitational in Cincinnati, Ohio next weekend. Two more games, against Auburn and Louisiana-Monroe, follow before the Lady Trojans play their next conference game – a Jan. 5 contest at Belmont.

"We’re right where we thought we’d be at this point in the season," said Hester. "Of course we would have liked to beat Chattanooga and Alabama, but all of our goals are still right in front of us."

And that goal is to win the Atlantic Sun title.

Or, considering that the A-Sun tournament will be held in Troy this year, at least win enough league games to make the final cut.

According to Hester, Birmingham-Southern, a team in just its second year of existence, will be "gunning" for his club.

"We handed them (BSC) one of their worst defeats last season down here," said Hester. The Lady Trojans beat Birmingham-Southern 73-42 in Trojan Arena, led by Jennifer Mcinnis’s 19 points. "But they’re a little more experienced this year and they’re actually an older club then we are. They’ve recruited a lot of junior college players that’s been able to help them out."

Birmingham-Southern beat TSU conference foe Jacksonville State 73-64 on Wednesday night and are led by sophomore Lindsay Boyette, a player Hester and his staff recruited two year’s ago.

"She’s (Boyette) a great shooter," he said.

And the numbers don’t lie.

Boyette is currently shooting 50 percent from the floor and 54 percent from the three-point line. She averages 17. 3 points per game and hasn’t missed a free throw all season long, going a perfect 31-for-31 at the foul line.

Game time is at 5 p.m.