Matinee sweep: Troy men and women easily take care of opponents in afternoon double-header
Published 7:05 pm Wednesday, December 12, 2018
The Troy hosted a midweek matinee double-header on Wednesday afternoon inside Trojan Arena.
The Troy women’s basketball team opened up with a 91-70 win over Talladega. The Trojan men closed out the afternoon with a dominating 88-43 win over Carver College.
The win for the Trojans improves their record on the season to 4-5.
“We had a nine-day break,” said Troy head coach Phil Cunningham. “This was the longest break since we have been here, that we have had. We wanted to make sure we played an opponent that we had a good opportunity to knock some rust off against and we did that today. I’m really pleased with how our guys played. It’s more so what they didn’t do than what they did do. We never got really selfish and we kept moving the ball, taking good shots. We never let the opponent dictate how we played in certain areas.”
The win for the Trojans snapped a short two-game losing streak.
“We certainly needed to get out here and play again and get a win,” Cunningham said. “Our guys are realistic enough to know that they should have beaten Carver and beat them pretty bad, so they took care of business.”
The Trojans led by as many as 39 points in the opening half. They outshot the Panthers 62 percent to 25 percent. The held Carver College to 17 first half points and went into the locker room at halftime holding a commanding 56-17 lead.
The Trojans led by as many 52 points in the second half. They led throughout the contest. Their 45-point margin of victory is their largest of the season. The 43 points allowed by the Trojans are the fewest allowed by Troy since the Trojans held ULM to 46 points on March 1, 2014.
Three Trojans finished in double figures led by Zay Williams who scored 14 points. Jordon Varnado added 13 and Alex Hicks had 12. Former Charles Henderson Trojan Jalen Tuck scored four points off the bench.
The Troy women’s basketball team rebounded from their tough loss to former rival Middle Tennessee State and defeated the Tornados by 21 points.
The win for the Trojans improves their record on the season to 7-2.
“We just had our finals week and it looked like that’s where are minds were,” said head coach Chanda Rigby. “We are thankful for the win. We always want to celebrate a win, but we didn’t make the advances we were hoping to make in this game. We had some specific things we were working on.”
The Trojans were hoping to see improvement after their six-game winning streak was snapped at the hands of Middle Tennessee State, in a game they had in hand in the final minutes.
“We wanted to come out and look so great,” Rigby said. “We wanted to show that what happened in the final 2:30 against Middle Tennessee State does not define our team. It didn’t happen as quickly as we wanted to, but it’s still going to happen. The wheels are turning slower than we want, but they’re turning. We got a great team, we have to dial the right numbers.”
The Trojans shot just 38 percent in the game, compared to 39 by Talladega. Turnovers plagued the Trojans at time during the game. They turned the ball over 23 times, which turned in 16 points for the Tornados.
The Trojans finished with two players in double figures led by Amber Rivers who posted a game-high 12 points. Sky’Lynn Holmes finished the contest with 11 points.
The Troy women will return to action on December 19 when they hit the road to take on Ole Miss. The men will also be on the road when they take on formal conference rival Western Kentucky on December 16.