Troy University Athletics
Troy University
UNC-Wilmington
UNCW Overpowers Troy in 2nd Half, 107-95
11/17/2008 6:00:00 AM | Basketball (M)
UNCW came out gunning in the first five minutes of the second half jumping on the Trojans with a 14-4 run that included five points from Dominique Lacy cutting the lead to 61-59.
Chad Tomko tied the game at 61-61 with 15:30 to go in the second half and took the lead on two Lacy free throws, their first lead since it was 18-13 at 14:23 in the first half.
Troy answered back on their next possession with a Lee three pointer, but Lacy was on the receiving end of an alley-oop lob to give UNCW the lead again at 65-64.
“The game was definitely fast paced," head coach Don Maestri said. "They really shot the basketball. There were times when we could have stretched it out, but just didn't do it. They made runs and we just did not answer the last time they made a run. We just didn't make the runs."
Troy cut the lead down to four points in the second half at 85-81 with 7:21 remaining, but allowed the Seahawks to pick up three offensive rebounds on the next possession and eventually a three-point basket.
After a Hazzard jumper, Lacy added an emphatic put-back dunk to stretch the lead back to seven with 5:24 remaining in the game.
UNCW's Tomko knocked down two three pointers early in the first half with Travis Lee's hand in his face and both times Troy (0-2) answered back with buckets of their own the first with a Lee three pointer and the second with a Tom Jervis dunk.
Jervis finished the game with 12 points and a Troy-high eight rebounds and one blocked shot. The Trojans lost the rebound battle 50-to-42, after leading substantially at halftime.
“I think in the second half is when they made the gains on rebounds," Maestri said. "We played three guards and they did not always make the best efforts on chasing down rebounds. This is a good little basketball team. Our fans will be entertained when they come to Troy in a few weeks.
The Seahawks (2-0) drained back-to-back three pointers to complete an 18-9 run to start the game. The run included the home team hitting their first four shots from outside the arc.
After the Trojans forced UNCW into a long shot as the shot clock horn sounded, Brandon Hazzard found Mario Telfair for an easy lay-in to cut the lead to 18-13 with 14 minutes remaining.
Regis Huddleston was able to connect on back-to-back long-distance shots of his own to give the Trojans their first lead with 12 minutes to go.
On the next possession, Huddleston connected on another deep three-pointer and Richard Delk found the bottom of the bucket with a three-point attempt to stretch the Troy lead to 25-18 at the 11:04 minute mark of the opening half.
Tomko battled the Seahawks back into the game with three straight scores to cut the Trojan lead to just one point, but Kenny Ware was left alone on the left wing for a three pointer to stretch the Troy lead to 30-26.
Huddleston picked up a 14-foot jumper in the lane and the Trojans followed that up with Hazzard's first three-point basket to stretch the lead. Then, on the next two trips down court both teams nailed three's with Delk hitting his second and Johnny Wolf connecting to put the lead at 42-33 for the Trojans with 4:33 on the clock.
Delk finished the game with a career-high 19 points and four assists. Four other Trojans scored in double figures including Huddleston (13 points), Lee (15 pts.) and Hazzard (11 pts.).
A lay-up for Chris Leggett and a Hazzard jumper gave Troy four more to push the lead to 49-33, but Tomko set up a Lacy lay-up and then stole the inbounds pass for a lay-up of his own to cut into the Trojans' advantage.
Tomko closed out the first half scoring with a three-pointer to give him 22 at the half to lead all scorers. Huddleston topped out the Trojans' scoring with 13 before halftime as the Trojans took a 55-47 lead into the break.
Wolf drained back-to-back three's to push the Seahawk's lead out to seven, 71-64 with 12:30 to go and on his team's next possession he converted a three-point play to give UNCW a 10 point advantage.
Jerel Stephenson picked up a steal and raced to the opposite end for a dunk pushing the Seahawk's lead to ten points at 95-85 with just more than four minutes to go.
After two UNCW free throws pushed the lead to 12, Lee followed up with a rainbow three pointer off a screen to drop the lead back down to nine points with 3:50 remaining.
Josh Williams nailed a three pointer with five seconds on the clock to pick up his first points and end the game's scoring.
“We took some ill-advised shots," Maestri said. "We have more to learn about how to play basketball in our style of play. You cannot take bad shots even though we have good shooters. If good shooters take bad shots, it makes them average shooters."
Tomko finished with 33 points and nine rebounds to lead all scorers. Lacy (21 points), Wolf (20 points) and Kevon Moore (11 points) also scored in double figures for UNCW.
Troy plays next on Thursday as part of a tournament at LSU. The Trojans will face Centenary on Thursday afternoon at 4:30 PM. Stay tuned to TroyTrojans.com for more information.
