On Monday, the Troy Trojans finished off the Sun Belt Conference Tournament with a 94-81 win over the Arkansas State Red Wolves to win the conference tournament championship – and punch their ticket into the NCAA Tournament – for the first time since 2017.

While Troy led for much of the game, Arkansas State took control in the second half. Arkansas State held a slim 43-41 lead at halftime and the two sides slugged it out for the first 10 minutes of the second half until the Red Wolves went on an 11-2 run to take a 66-58 lead.

Then, the Trojans flipped the switch. The Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Tayton Conerway and Dothan native Thomas Dowd began to take over midway through the second half. The pair led Troy on an eye-popping 23-4 run that saw Troy lead by as many as 13 points. During the stretch, Conerway and Dowd combined for 15 points.

“These guys right here have ice in their veins,” Troy Coach Scott Cross said as he pointed to Dowd and Conerway. “The moment is never too big for Tayton Conerway and the same goes for Thomas Dowd. It doesn’t matter who we play. It’s absolutely amazing the way they came through. All the momentum was going the other way and for them to be able to flip the script is a great life lesson.

“If 20 years from now your house burns down, you’ve already fought through adversity and know how to overcome it. These guys are unbelievable.”

Cross said his team fought through adversity all season long.

“Our five loss were by (a combined) 14 points, so we’ve had adversity and we’ve had hard lessons,” Cross said. “They’ve learned from it and I think our team has grown closer and I think that’s been the difference the last four or five games. They’ve come together not pointed fingers and said we’re going to do this thing together.”

Conerway finished the game with 21 points, six rebounds and three assists and was named Tournament MVP, but he went into halftime with just five points.

“I went into halftime and was kind of holding my head a little, just frustrated with myself because stuff wasn’t going my way,” Conerway remembered. “My teammates – and coaches – came by me one-by-one and just said, ‘Get your head’ and ‘There’s another 20 minutes, there’s no more lessons to be learned.’ I picked my head up there.”

Dowd finished the game with 14 points, nine rebounds and three steals and was named to the All-Tournament Team along with Conerway. Dowd said that after winning the regular season co-conference championship, he and his teammates felt a bit disrespected.

“We all appreciated, and were grateful for, the co-regular season championship but we knew we made some mistakes and let some games slip by,” said Dowd. “I think we were all still hungry, we knew what this team was capable of. I might have a bad habit of seeing what people are saying on social media and I felt a little disrespected.

“I felt like no one was talking about Troy. I don’t think we were getting the credit we deserved and I think we all felt like that and used it as a chip on the shoulder to fuel the fire. They can’t say much now.”

The win not only marks Troy’s first conference tournament championship since 2017, it’s also the first time Troy has won both a share of the regular season championship and the tournament championship since 2003. It’s also the first time that Cross has cut down the net at a tournament in nearly 20 years.

“The last time I’ve been to an NCAA Tournament was 2008,” Cross said. “I don’t take this for granted by any means. It’s one of the hardest things to do, especially in the Sun Belt. There’s 14 teams and they are very, very close in terms of talent and ability. It’s a difficult league, it’s a gauntlet. It was a dog fight with Arkansas State. I have a ton of respect for them.”

Troy will now advance to the NCAA Tournament, its opponent and location will be announced during NCAA Selection Sunday on March 16.