Troy men dominate Alcorn State at home

Published 3:00 am Thursday, December 4, 2014

After completing road trips to Georgia and Southern Miss to cap off their November schedule, the friendly confines of Trojan Arena certainly seemed to be a welcomed sight to the Troy men’s basketball team.

The Trojans sailed past Alcorn State 72-51 at home Tuesday behind strong performances by Wesley Person, Kevin Thomas and John Walton III.

Troy got off to a shaky start in the game’s first four minutes, which saw the Trojans turn the ball over twice as Alcorn State took an early 8-5 lead.

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But lead by Kevin Thomas in the first half, the Trojans went on a 21-2 run over the next nine minutes before going into halftime up 39-21.

Troy (2-3) ended the first half shooting 50 percent from the field.

After a hot start helped Alcorn State (1-5) to a 6-0 run to start the second half, the Trojans answered, outscoring the Braves 33-30 in the second half.

“The stats indicate, for the first time, that we had a positive assist to turnover ratio tonight, 18 assists to nine turnovers,” said head coach Phil Cunningham. “We have been needing that and we have been working on that. If you want to be a winning team, you have to take care of the ball and share the ball. We finally did that tonight. I thought it was a good effort, if you take out the first five minutes of the second half.”

Person led the Trojans in scoring with a game-high 17 points, including shooting 5-of-9 from 3-point range. It was his third highest scoring output this season.

Thomas and Walton III chipped in with 14 and 15 points, respectively.

Troy shot just over 47 percent from the floor, including 18 second-chance points. The Trojans also outscored the Braves 36-26 in the paint.

SWAC Preseason Player of the Year LeAntwan Luckett led Alcorn State with 14 points, and Marquis Vance scored 10 points and gathered a team-high nine rebounds.

Troy junior guard Oskar Reinfelds continued his comeback from preseason injuries. Reinfelds played 20 minutes while scoring thee points and dishing out four assists Tuesday.

The Trojans will return to the court Saturday when they host Central Arkansas with a noon tipoff time.