Troy rolls past Victory University in pre-season exhibition

Published 11:00 pm Tuesday, October 29, 2013

The new era of Troy basketball was on full display Tuesday night as the Trojans used a big second half to cruise to a 105-68 win over Victory University in an exhibition game.

Troy outscored the Eagles 52-29 in the second half and coasted to a 37-point win.

Troy head coach Phil Cunningham said his players were excited to play against someone other than their teammates.

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“It was good because we finally got to play against somebody else,” Cunningham said. “We have been practicing for at least five weeks. They are kind of burn out on playing each other, so it was good to get out there against somebody else.”

Senior point guard Hunter Williams led the for the Troy offense, going 9-for-19 from the floor and finishing with 23 points.

Williams, a point guard, doesn’t normally score that much, but he said he wants to make the most of the opportunities in certain sets.

“I’m not really focused on scoring necessarily,” Williams said. “I am looking to get teammates involved, but in certain circumstances I get to play off the ball when Antoine (Myers) has it. When I am in that position, the coaches tell me to look to shoot. That’s what I did.”

Every player that dressed for the Trojans got playing time Tuesday night, and every player contributed with points. Freshman bench players Hobie Hughes and Jordan Howard only played two minutes, but still got in on the scoring action late.

“I don’t know if I would call it a deep bench,” Cunningham said. “The problem is that we dressed 12 guys tonight. We have got an injury to DJ (Deonata Jethroe), and to a couple of other guys that have to sit out all year. One of our main concerns is depth, especially on the perimeter.”

Tevin Calhoun also had a big night for the Trojans. Calhoun notched a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Troy will have a few days off before making the trip to Oxford, Mississippi to meet the defending SEC champion Ole Miss Rebels in the season opener for both teams.

The Trojans played their exhibition game earlier than most teams, and Cunningham feels that his group has time to get better before the opener on November 8.

“We got the exhibition out of the way early, and now we have a good space in between the exhibition and our opener with Ole Miss,” said Cunningham. “We wanted to set it early to give us time to prepare for Ole Miss and be as prepared as possible going in to that game.”