Troy University Athletics
Troy Falls on Road to Arkansas State
1/20/2008 6:00:00 AM | Basketball (W)
JONESBORO, Ark. - Troy University struggled from the field, falling to West Division-leading Arkansas State University 66-48 on the road in Sun Belt Conference action Sunday afternoon.
“I have to give credit to Arkansas State on the win,” Troy head coach Michael Murphy said. “I thought they bounced back pretty good from a difficult loss to Denver, and right now we are trying to find ourselves a little bit.”
Troy, playing without senior guard Laura Lee Holman, was in foul trouble in the second half when both Kylie Morrissy and Audrey Muse picked up their third personal foul in the first four minutes of the second half. Muse picked up her fourth foul with 12:33 remaining the half, sending her to the bench for four minutes.
With Muse and Morrissy on the bench with three fouls, Arkansas State went on a 7-1 run to open a 34-23 lead with 14:24 remaining in the contest. They opened that lead to as many as 16 when Muse went to the bench with her fourth foul.
Trailing by as many as 17 points in the second half, the Trojans mounted a furious rally over the final five minutes of the contest.
Troy (9-9, 2-5 Sun Belt) trimmed the lead to as little as nine points with 2:25 to play on a Muse lay-up. However, the margin was too much for the Trojans to overcome in the end. After a basket by Arkansas State's Sherina Scott extended the lead back to 11, the Trojans' Amy Lewis connected on a running jumper to trim the lead to 57-48 with 1:22 to play in the contest. Unfortunately, Arkansas State used a 9-0 run over the last 82 seconds for the final margin.
The Trojans struggled for much of the first half, connecting on a season-low seven field goals and a season-low 23.3 percent shooting from the floor in the opening half of play.
“When you look at the quality, and the quantity of the shots we missed, I think we have to bear a little bit of the responsibility for that,” Murphy said. “When you've got the ball some two-three feet away from the goal, one of two things has got to happen, you have to hit the shot or get to the free throw line.”
The Trojans found themselves down just seven points at the break, 25-18, due in large part to 18 total rebounds (11 of which were offensive) and defensive pressure leading to 12 turnovers by Arkansas State.
“In the first half I thought we did a really good job,” Murphy said. “I thought we had some opportunities there in the first half to give ourselves a chance defensively. This is an offensive game, the team that scores the most points is going to win. Defensively in the first half, we gave ourselves an opportunity but we just didn't do anything offensively to take advantage of the opportunity that we gave ourselves.”
Troy never led in the first half of play, but closed the Arkansas State (12-8, 7-2 SBC) lead to as little as a single point at 8-7 with 13:08 remaining in the half on a Morrissy six-foot runner in the lane.
After Arkansas State extended the lead to 12-8 with 10:48 remaining in the half, the two teams traded baskets over the next four minutes with the Lady Indians grabbing a 14-12 lead with 6:50 remaining in the half.
The Lady Indians scored seven of the next ten points to take a 21-15 lead with 1:50 remaining in the first half. Troy closed the gap to 21-18 on a Lewis three-pointer with 1:31 remaining in the half, but Arkansas State used baskets by Ebonie Jefferson and Caroline Starr to close the half and take the lead at intermission.
The first half belonged to Morrissy and Lewis from the field; Morrissy scored the first seven points of the game for Troy, while Lewis finished the half by scoring eight consecutive points.
“We really struggled shooting the basketball,” Murphy said. “We are a pretty good shooting team, and have been all year, especially from the perimeter and from the post. We just for whatever reason struggled making good shots, which I thought set the tempo in the first half.”
Troy was led by Lewis with 18 points and Morrissy chipped in with 17 and nine rebounds. Muse and Brittnie Davis grabbed seven rebounds in the loss.
Arkansas State was paced by Scott and Veronica Smith with 13 points each. Scott grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds, while Jasmine Taylor added 11 points.
Troy returns to action Thursday, January 24 at home against Arkansas-Little Rock. The game tips off at 5:15 p.m. and is the first of three consecutive home games for the Trojans.
