Trojans hope to get back on track at home

Published 10:05 pm Friday, January 14, 2011

After spending a good part of the past couple of weeks on the road, the Troy Trojans women’s basketball team will finally be playing a game on the hardwood of Sartain Hall.

The team’s travels begin on Dec. 18, against North Florida, and continued up until last Saturday, against Arkansas-Little Rock.

The Trojans won just two of those eight games, one against Mississippi Valley State in Atlanta and the other in the only home game of that stretch against Florida Atlantic, back on Jan. 2.

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Since that victory, Troy has dropped its last two Sun Belt games, both on the road, to Louisiana-Lafayette and UALR, to bring its record to 4-13 overall, 1-3 in the conference play.

“It’s been a tough stretch,” head coach Michael Murphy said. “We were on the road 15 of the last 22 day and played seven games in those 15 days. A lot of that took place over the Christmas break too. We have kind of been road warriors here, so it’s nice to be home and have a chance to sleep in our beds and take a couple of days off because (the team) really needed it from a physical standpoint.”

That aforementioned rest was just what the team got this past week thanks to several days off.

Now, the Trojans will look to use that rest gained against a formidable foe in North Texas this afternoon, and in the process, improve to 4-3 at home this season.

While Mean Green will enter the game with a 4-14 overall record, and 1-4 in conference play, the team from Texas leads the all-time series against Troy 6-3, however the Trojans have won the last two games, including at home last season.

“North Texas is a team that when you look at them warm up, you get scared,” Murphy said. “They pass the eye test.

“Now, last year we beat them (in Troy), put in the past, they have tried to play up-tempo and press a lot, and we took advantage of that. I don’t think they are going to be pressing too much (today) but we are going to see. When a team starts to press, you have to be able to take advantage of that, whether or not we can do that – time will tell.”

Hoping to lead the Trojans to its fifth victory of the season are DeAngela Sword and Donette McNair, who are some of the top scorers in the conference.

Sword is currently leading the team in the statistic, with 14.5 points per game, while McNair is not far behind, averaging 13 points per game.

“We had a tough road stretch, but we are out of that now,” Murphy said.

“I think everyone has been looking forward to some time at home and some home games for a while. We have that, now it’s time to deliver.”

The Trojans and the Mean Green will tip-off at 4 p.m.