Troy University Athletics
Troy University
Alcorn State
Trojans Pick Up First Win, 92-79
11/21/2008 6:00:00 AM | Basketball (M)
BATON ROUGE, La. ? Troy picked up their first win of the season with a 92-79 victory over Alcorn State on Friday afternoon at the Maravich Assembly Center as part of the LSU Thanksgiving Invitational.
Regis Huddleston and Antywan Jones each made their first start of the season as the Trojans attempted to shake up their line up and hopefully their fortune in the win-loss column against Alcorn State.
Huddleston picked up Troy's first points of the game on a spot-up three-pointer after Alcorn State took a 3-0 advantage and Jones found Tom Jervis for a lay-up for a 5-2 lead early on.
Huddleston scored a team-high 16 points and pulled down five rebounds. Jervis finished the game with 10 points, eight rebounds and a season-high three blocks.
Jones found Jervis again for a powerful dunk to push Troy's lead out to 9-6 at the 17 minute mark. Michael Vogler drained two free throws 13 seconds later to push to lead to 11-6 after an Alcorn State timeout.
Vogler posted a near triple-double with nine points, a career-high nine rebounds and nine assists.
Huddleston drained two more three's and Troy's lead was 10 points at 20-10 with the clock showing 15:01 and Tom Jervis headed to the free throw line.
Consecutive three-pointers by Josh Williams and Travis Lee stretched Troy's advantage to 33-21 with 10:11 remaining in the opening half of play.
Jervis picked up two big blocks and in transition Richard Delk picked up his first points on a three-pointer from the corner. The sequence continued with a couple of long rebounds that Troy turned into a Brandon Hazzard three-pointer and a Jervis dunk in the lane.
Hazzard added another three to conclude a 13-0 Troy run over the last three minutes that gave Troy a 46-24 lead with 6:39 on the clock.
Troy pushed their lead to 28 points with a Richard Delk three-pointer with 3:37 left in the first half.
The lead went to 30 after Kenny Ware picked up the rebound off his own miss and laid it in with an acrobatic move. He picked up two more off a feed from Jones for a 32 point advantage at 65-33 with a little more than two minutes to go.
Alcorn State started off the second half with a 7-0 run in the first 1:26 of the second half before Troy took their first timeout of the game.
Out of the timeout, Gifford Blakely hit one-of-two free throws, but after that it was all Troy with Vogler and Delk knocking down three's.
Jarvis Williams hit a two from the foul line to pull Troy's lead below 20 for the first time since there was 7:25 remaining in the first half.
Brandon Rogers knocked down a three-pointer with 9:33 to go to cut Troy's lead down to 16 points at 77-61.
Lay-ups from Hazzard and Mario Telfair pushed the Troy lead to 86-68 with four minutes to go.
After a Telfair lay-up, the Braves came back with a three pointer, but with just one minute remaining Troy was able to hold on.
Five Trojans scored in double figures on the afternoon. Delk recorded 12 points with a team-high nine rebounds, Telfair had 10 with five boards and Hazzard added 14 points.
"Obviously we really needed this win. It was important we win this game. We came out in the second half not as intense and missed some good looks. All four games we have not played as well in the second half and we have got to get better at that," head coach Don Maestri
The Trojans are in action next on Tuesday when they host Georgia State at 7:30 pm at Trojan Arena.
