Women’s Basketball Breaks Program Wins Record in First Win at Little Rock
Published 9:46 am Friday, March 6, 2020
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Troy Athletics
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Troy women’s basketball continued its best season in program history with yet another program milestone. With its 70-54 victory on Thursday the Trojans not only won their first-ever game at Little Rock, but more importantly they won their 24th game of the season, setting a new program mark for wins in a season.
After starting slow in the first-quarter and falling behind by eight, Troy began to turn it on in the second by shooting 66 percent from the field and out-scoring Little Rock 25-9 to go into the locker room with a 10-point advantage. The big second-quarter propelled the Trojans to shooting 51 percent for the game on 28-of-54 shooting. This was the Trojans highest shooting percentage since shooting 53 percent back on Feb. 8, 2018 against Arkansas State. Troy was led offensively by Amber Rivers who scored a game-high 15-points behind a perfect 3-for-3 day from behind the arc. Alexus Dye finished second in scoring with 11-points, seven of which sparked Troy’s big second-quarter. Japonica James recorded her third double-double of the season with 10-points and 10 boards.
Troy picked up its defensive intensity in the second-quarter, and it paid dividends. The Trojans held Little Rock to just 35 percent shooting, their lowest percentage since Troy held them to just 31 percent a couple weeks ago. Little Rock’s leading scorer Krya Collier, who is averaging just under15-points per game, was held just eight points while shooting just 3-of-14 from the field. Teal Battle Led the Trojans with 15-points.
Troy’s second-quarter was sparked by James who scored six points in just under four minutes. After a Rivers triple that gave Troy its first lead of the game at 23-22 Dye began to join in on the fun, scoring seven points in two minutes to give Troy a 10-point advantage, and all the momentum heading into the locker room.
Records
Troy: 24-4 (15-2 SBC)
Little Rock: 11-17 (9-8 SBC)
Quoting Coach Rigby
On the overall outcome of the game
“We are very excited about the game. It’s the first time we’ve ever won here and breaking the record for most wins in program history is great but it was about staying in contention to win a championship. I think a lot of players came around. We had outside shooting from several guards with threes from Harriet Winchester, Janiah Sandifer, Tiyah Johnson and of course Amber hit several threes. This was a game about fighting through adversity. We had a lot of adversity just getting to Little Rock but like we tell the players, anytime you’re about to do something special there is going to be things going against you.”
On breaking the program record for wins
“It means so much to us because what we’ve always lacked is the discipline night in and night out to take care of games that we should be able to take care of and we’ve done that for the most part this year. We’ve improved by leaps and bounds this season and it means so much to our program that we can do this.”