The Troy Trojans (19-10, 12-5) men’s basketball team earned a pivotal 74-69 road win over the Texas State Bobcats (15-15, 8-9) on Tuesday, Feb. 25, to keep them in second place of the Sun Belt Conference.

The win also guaranteed that Troy would at least get a bye all the way to the Sun Belt Championship Quarterfinals in March. Troy currently sits in second place with just one game remaining on the schedule. Arkansas State and South Alabama sit at 11-5 with two conference games remaining, while James Madison is alone at No. 1 with a 13-4 conference record and one game remaining on the schedule. 

With a win on Saturday against Southern Miss, and a JMU loss, Troy would secure the top seed in the Sun Belt Conference and its first regular season Sun Belt Championship since 2009. Regardless of the outcome of the JMU game, a win would secure the No. 2 seed for Troy in the conference tournament, as well. The top two seeds receive a bye all the way into the semifinals. 

Troy and Texas State slugged it out for most of the game, with six lead changes and 10 ties, but the Trojans held Texas State completely scoreless in the final 5:10 of play to secure the win. 

“It’s never easy. I think we won that game with our offensive rebounding,” Troy Coach Scott Cross said. “Thomas (Dowd) had a few down the stretch, Tayton (Conerway) had a couple, RJ (Randarius Jones) had a couple. I thought that was the difference in the game. We had missed some shots but we were able to secure second and third opportunities. When you do that, you give yourself a great opportunity to win. They are a good rebounding team and we out-rebounded them by eight. I’ll take that on the road all day long.”

Troy shot 37.9 percent from the field, while Texas State shot 40.8 percent, but the Trojans won the rebound battle 41-33 and outscored the Bobcats 32-24 in the paint and 16-13 in second chance points. Both teams forced 13 turnovers and scored 17 points off turnovers.

Tayton Conerway had another big night for Troy, scoring 24 points and dished three assists with five rebounds and five steals. Myles Rigsby added 15 points, five rebounds and two assists, while Victor Valdes, Thomas Dowd and Jackson Fields scored eight points each. Dowd also grabbed 10 rebounds and Randarius Jones earned three blocks with eight rebounds to go along with six points. 

For Texas State, Tylan Pope scored 25 points and grabbed four rebounds. 

Troy remains on the road to close out the regular season on Saturday against Southern Miss at 7:30 p.m.