Troy women look to win second-straight game Thursday against South Alabama

Published 3:42 am Thursday, February 12, 2015

Coming off of its highest offensive output all season one week ago against Appalachian State, the Troy women are looking to orchestrate yet another winning streak.

Thursday night, the Trojans will go for two-straight victories when they host conference foe South Alabama in what is becoming a newly budding rivalry between the two schools.

Troy (13-9, 8-5) is coming off of a 108-87 shellacking of the Mountaineers on Feb. 7 in what was the first game all season the Trojans scored over 100 points.

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The win snapped a two-game losing streak and reminded fans and teams in the conference that Chanda Rigby’s team is still the highest scoring offense in the Sun Belt.

In fact, the Trojans have been quietly lighting up the scoreboards in their last 10 games, scoring over 75 points seven times.

At its current rate, Troy is on the brink of leading the Sun Belt in scoring for the third-straight season under Rigby.

After reaching second place in the Sun Belt’s overall standings during its six-game win streak, Troy lost four of five games before the win against Appalachian State. The Trojans slid to fourth place but have made up ground since, as they currently sit in third place in the conference. Troy is two wins away from tying its all-time best 10 conference wins mark in a season.

In addition to their offense, the Trojans’ defense has come on strong in the second half of the season as well. With 22.8 turnovers per game and 12.0 steals per game, Troy leads the Sun Belt and ranks sixth and fifth in the NCAA, respectively.

Individually, Ashley Beverly-Kelley leads the Trojans in several statistical categories going into Thursday’s matchup.

The junior leads all Troy players in scoring with 16.3 points a game and also leads the team with 2.7 assists a game and 2.5 steals a game.

In the paint, Ronita Garrett has been a force all season. The senior leads the team in rebounding with 10.7 boards a game and is fresh off a streak of five-straight games with a double-double. Last week against Appalachian State, Garrett scored a career-high 28 points.

On the other side of the ball, South Alabama (4-18, 1-12) comes into Thursday on a three-game losing streak.

Senior guard Breanna Hall leads the Jaguars in scoring with just over 15 points a game on the season.

Tipoff is set for 5:15 p.m. Thursday at Trojan Arena.