The Troy Trojans let the University of New Orleans Lady Privateers hang around just long enough to let them slip back into the game Wednesday night in Trojan Arena. Troy never trailed in the first half and led 30-20 at halftime, but was outscored 44-29 in the second half en route to a disappointing 64-59 loss.

“Obviously it is a very disappointing loss,” Troy head coach Michael Murphy said. “We played good for about 30 minutes, now we just have to get ready to play the next game.”

The Lady Privateers (9-10, 4-4 Sun Belt) took the lead at 53-52 with nearly six minutes remaining and never looked back. UNO also hit its free throws when they were needed to ice the game. They hit 17-of-21 free throws in the game and 5-of-7 after grabbing the lead.

Late in the first half, the Trojans (8-10, 3-5) stretched a 9-6 lead to 20-8 with strong play from Donette McNair and Brittnie Davis. Troy went on a 10-2 run in a stretch of nearly four minutes. Troy kept the ball on their side of the court with aggressive play all around.

New Orleans fought back to cut the lead to 30-20 by halftime, but Troy never trailed in the first half.

Kylie Morrissy got in foul trouble early, but hit an back-to-back three-pointers early in the second half to energize her team and give them a 36-22 lead two minutes into the second half. Morrissy helped the Trojans stretch the lead to 42-29 with 10 of the Trojans’ first 12 points in the second half. Morrissy scored in double digits for the 70th time in her career.

UNO kept chipping away at the lead and cut the Troy advantage to 48-46 with 7:35 remaining.

New Orleans grabbed its first lead with six minutes left in the game, 53-52. Cookie Johnson stretched the lead to 55-52 for UNO.

Alyce Shearing scored on a breakaway to cut the UNO lead to 56-54 with 1:54 to play. Davis nailed a three-pointer after two true UNO free throws to cut the Lady Privateer lead to 61-57 with 14 seconds to go.

But the Trojans could not mount the comeback as UNO nailed the free throws to ice the game at 64-59.

Larelle Roper moved into fourth place on the Troy all-time assists chart Wednesday night with her four assists.

The senior point guard now has 376 career assists.

McNair recorded her sixth double-double of her career and sixth for the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Morrissy scored 16 points in the second half and led the Trojans with 18.