Troy University Athletics
Samford Hands Troy First Loss of Season
12/2/2005 12:00:00 AM | Basketball (W)
Laura Lee Holman led the Trojans with 13 points, and Amy Lewis added 11. Alecia Jones finished with six points, 13 rebounds and two blocked shots.
Alex Munday finished with 18 points and was the only Bulldog to score in double figures. Cora Beth Smith finished with nine points and six assists.
After Lewis scored on a jump shot on Troy's first possession, the Trojans were held scoreless for more than six minutes as the Bulldogs built a 12-2 lead with 13:13 left in the half.
The Trojans (3-1) went on a 12-4 run, and a three by Laura Lee Holman with 8:30 left in the half cut the Samford lead to 16-14. The Bulldogs (4-1) answered with threes on back-to-back possessions to stretch their lead back to eight.
Holman knocked down her second three to cut the Trojans' deficit to 24-19 with four minutes left in the half. Munday answered with a three to put Samford back up by eight at 27-19 with 3:35.
The Bulldogs were able to build onto their lead at the charity stripe, connecting on five of six attempts during a two-minute span to take a 32-21 lead with 1:58 left on the clock.
Taryn Towns connected from behind the arc to give the Bulldogs their largest lead of the first half at 35-21. After a basket by Alecia Jones, the Trojans went into the locker room trailing 35-23.
Samford quickly added to their halftime lead when Veronica Pike connected on two free throws just 19 seconds into the second period. Kylie Morrissy added four straight points for the Trojans to bring Troy to within 37-27 with 19 minutes to play. Holman knocked down a three on Troy's next possession to cut the lead to single digits for the first time at 37-30 with 17:57 on the clock.
The difference stayed between seven and 10 points until the Bulldogs went on a 7-0 run to bring their lead to 50-36 with 11 minutes to play.
The Bulldogs would build their lead to as many as 19 points, holding a 60-41 advantage with six minutes remaining. The Trojans chipped away at the Bulldog lead, but they were unable to bring it back under 10 points until Muse hit a baseline jump shot with just three seconds left to make the final score 68-60.
We got into a hole early, and we can't expect to do that against a team that can shoot like Samford can and win,” Troy head coach Michael Murphy said. I'm proud of our players. They worked hard the entire game. If you look at the stats, we won a lot of the battles, we just did not win the war.”
Troy finished with more field goals and a higher shooting percentage than Samford, shooting 22-of-49 (44.9 percent) compared to Samford's 21-of-51 (41.2 percent) effort. Troy also won the rebounding battle, coming down with 33 rebounds to Samford's 30.
The Bulldogs forced 19 Trojan turnovers, while giving the ball up 13 times. The Bulldogs finished 16-of-20 (80 percent) from the free-throw line, while the Trojans converted 11-of-16 (68.8 percent) of their free-throw attempts.
The Trojans do not take the floor again until Dec. 11 when they host UCF at 2 p.m.
