The Troy Trojans (20-12, 13-5) knocked off the Marshall Thundering Herd (15-20, 6-12) by a score of 85-54 in the quarterfinals of the Sun Belt Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament in Pensacola, Fla., on Saturday.

The win propels Troy back into the conference semifinals for the first time since 2022. The win also earned Troy its 20th of the season, marking the second consecutive season Troy has eclipsed 20 wins. It’s also the sixth time in the past seven years Troy has won at least 20 games.

Marshall came into the game on a four-game winning straight, all four of those wins coming in the tournament. The Herd continued that momentum by matching Troy shot-for-shot in the first quarter with Troy hanging on to a slim 18-17 lead going into the second quarter.

Troy led 40-34 at halftime. The Trojans, though, owned the second half. Troy outscored Marshall 17-9 in the third quarter and 28-11 in the fourth. Troy shot 40 percent from the field in the win, while holding Marshall to just 21.6 percent shooting. Troy’s bench outscored Marshall 43-15.

“I’m so thankful to get this win,” Troy Coach Chanda Rigby said. “I don’t know if anyone else in this tournament knows as well as I do how tough it is to get that first win. We’ve won (here) before and we’ve come up short before. So, we’re thankful to get this win against a hot team, maybe the hottest team we’ve seen.

“This team did amazing things and people will probably ask me, ‘Do you think they ran out of steam,’ and yeah, I do. I think they did an amazing job and our team did an amazing job pressuring them and putting pressure on them to get any energy they had left out of them with our press but also with our fastbreak.”

The Trojans, who came into the tournament leading the entire country in rebounding, once again was dominant with 62 rebounds, the second most total of the season, compared to Marshall’s 42. Troy also outscored Marshall 29-17 in second chance points and 30-20 in the paint.

“I did not realize we had 62 rebounds, that’s a lot,” Rigby said. ” We do lead the nation in several categories in rebounding, including total rebounds. It’s usually a really good night for us if we get around 50 or 55 but 62 is amazing. I’m really proud of these guys.”

Fortuna Ngnawo led Troy with a double-double, tallying 19 points, 12 rebounds, two blocks and two steals, while All-Sun Belt forward Zay Dyer totalled 16 points and four rebounds. Briana Peguero added 10 points, while Brianna Jackson grabbed 10 rebounds and blocked two shots. Shaulana Wagner also dished five assists. For Marshall, Aislynn Hayes scored 23 points. She was the only Marshall player to score more than eight points.

Troy now sets its sights on Arkansas state, the No. 2 seed, in the semifinals on Sunday. Troy played Arkansas State twice in the regular season, both Trojan losses. Those games include an 89-85 loss last Friday in the regular season finale.