Troy Men’s Basketball ties first place in the Sun Belt

Published 9:42 am Thursday, February 8, 2024

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The Troy Trojans men’s basketball team (16-8, 10-2) won their fifth straight game on Wednesday night 82-66 over the Marshall Thundering Herd (12-13, 7-5), also tying first place in the Sun Belt Conference standings.

Troy is now sitting in first place – tied with Appalachian State – in the Sun Belt and holding the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Mountaineers. The win also marked Troy’s 11th straight win at home and holds a 13-1 record at Trojan Arena this season. The 13 wins at home is the most in Troy’s Division I history and ties the most home wins in school history.

Troy shot 40 percent from the field in the win and held Marshall to 39 percent shooting. The Trojans also won the rebound battle 49-38 and forced 14 turnovers with 23 points off turnovers.

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“Overall, I am pleased with the way we played. We started a little slow in the first couple of minutes, but after that timeout, we started going,” Troy Coach Scott Cross said. “We started extremely strong in the second half but did get very, very sloppy. That’s been a bad trend for us. When we get up 20 points, we tend to get sloppy… For me, it’s about getting better every single possession and every single game. But, overall I am very pleased. The guys did battle, and anytime you get 19 offensive rebounds and 13 steals, you can’t really complain about the effort.”

Dothan native Thomas Dowd put together his second career double-double as he tallied 12 points, 13 rebounds and two steals for the Trojans. Myles Rigsby led all scorers with 19 points along with eight rebounds and three steals, while Aamer Muhammad totaled 17 points, four rebounds and four assists. Tayton Conerway chipped in with 13 points and five steals. Both Christyon Eugene and Jackson Fields earned eight points each, while Fields also grabbed 10 rebounds and two blocks. Eugene also had three assists and two steals.

Troy is back at home this Saturday for the second game of the MAC-SBC Challenge with Kent State coming to Trojan Arena at 3:33 p.m. in a game that will broadcast on ESPN+.