Trojans Fall To Denver On The Road

DENVER ? The University of Denver used a flurry of three-pointers in the second half to down the Troy University Trojans 80-66 in Sun Belt Conference action Thursday night.

Denver (10-12, 6-5 SBC) came from behind in the second half, and took the lead on back-to-back three-pointers from junior Joe Jackson. The second three-pointer by Jackson gave the Pioneers their biggest lead of the game at 60-56 with 5:43 remaining in the contest.

The Pioneers extended the lead to 63-56 with 5:10 remaining in the contest on a Nate Rohnert three-pointer. Troy was able to trim the deficit to 63-58, before Jackson took a pass from Adam Tanner at halfcourt for an easy lay-up with 4:59 to play to extend the Pioneers lead back to seven, 65-58.

Troy (10-13, 3-9 SBC) looked to be going down by nine points with 4:11 to play in the contest until Justin Jonus took a charge from Tanner on a fastbreak. Immediately following the charge call, Denver coach Joe Scott was whistled for a technical foul.

O'Darien Bassett promptly hit both free throws to trim the lead to 65-60, and then he followed that up with a 15-footer with 3:55 to play to trim the deficit 65-62.

The two teams traded baskets following those two possessions until Jackson nailed another three-pointer from the right wing with under three minutes to play to extend the lead to 70-64 with 2:44 remaining in the contest.

The first half was a different story, for both teams.

Jonus started the game for the Trojans with a three-pointer just 40 seconds into the game, before Bassett connected on his own three-pointer on the next possession to give Troy a 6-0 lead with 17:49 remaining in the first half. The lead was pushed to 8-0 when Bassett connected on a long jump, before Denver scored their first point of the game with 16:49 remaining in the half on a Nate Rohnert free throw.

The Trojans pushed the lead to 11-1 with a Jerome Odem three-pointer, and held Denver 4:04 without a field goal until the Pioneers hit their first basket on an Adam Tanner lay-up to trim the lead to 11-3.

Troy expanded their lead to as many as 13 in the first half when Michael Vogler connected on a three-pointer with 11:04 remaining in the half, giving the Trojans an 18-5 lead. The lead stayed in double figures throughout the first half until Kyle Lewis connected on a pair of free throws with just 2.9 seconds remaining in the half.

The Trojans used a patient half-court offensive attack, combined with a few fast break opportunities to take a 34-25 lead in the first half. Troy shot 45.2 (14-of-31) percent from the floor throughout the first half, while connecting on 40 (4-of-10) percent of their three-point attempts.

Jackson led Denver with a game-high 24 points, while Rohnert added a career-high 19 points for the Pioneers ? who stay undefeated at home in conference play this season. Rob Lewis added 14 points and 14 rebounds in the victory. Tanner added 12 and Kyle Lewis 11 for Denver.

Meanwhile, Bassett led the Trojans with 20 points, while Jonus added 16 and Vogler nine in the loss.

For the game, the Pioneers shot 54.2 (26-of-48) percent from the floor and 45.5 (10-of-22) percent from behind the arc. Meanwhile, the Trojans shot 43.1 (25-of-58) percent from the floor and 33.3 (7-of-21) percent from behind the arc.

The Trojans return to action Sunday afternoon against the University of South Alabama. The game is set to tip at 1 p.m. at Trojan Arena, and is can be heard on the Troy/ISP Network with Barry McKnight providing the play-by-play.

- www.troytrojans.com -

Troy University Athletics

Related News

Related Videos