Troy University Athletics
Troy Falls In Regular Season Finale
3/1/2008 6:00:00 AM | Basketball (M)
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - The Troy University Trojans men's basketball team dropped their regular season finale 81-58 to Middle Tennessee State University at The Murphy Center Saturday night.
After trailing by as many as 17 in the second half, the Trojans clawed their way back into the contest with tenacious defense and timely shots. Defensively, the Trojans forced a pair of turnovers and held Middle Tennessee to one shot on a pair of trips down the floor. Jarvis Acker forced a jump ball situation by just simply taking the ball away from Middle Tennessee's Theryn Hudson in the block. Jerome Odem forced another turnover by Middle Tennessee on the same possession with just seven seconds remaining on the shot clock, when he deflected the ball and hit the floor to retrieve it.
Kenny Ware also made a fabulous defensive play in the same sequence, although the ball went to Middle Tennessee on the jump ball situation. Ware went for a loose ball that was trapped between the knees of Middle Tennessee's Nigel Johnson. Ware picked the ball up, completely off the ground, lifting Johnson in the process before the officials called for a jump ball.
Unfortunately, Middle Tennessee (14-14, 11-7 Sun Belt) went on an 11-1 run after the Ware situation to open the contest up.
Middle Tennessee was able to get back-to-back baskets by Hudson, as well as a free throw to push the lead to 62-48 with 9:20 remaining in the contest. The lead was pushed to 66-48 with 8:15 to play when Johnson drained a 3-pointer from the left wing for the Blue Raiders. After a Bernard Toombs free throw trimmed the lead to 66-49, Kevin Kanaskie drained a long 3-pointer to push the lead to 69-49; the biggest lead of the night for Middle Tennessee.
The Blue Raiders jumped out on top of Troy (11-18, 4-14 Sun Belt) in the first half, 5-0, in the opening seconds of the game on a 3-pointer by Johnson and a jumper by Kevin Kanaskie on their first two possessions of the game. After the Trojans trimmed the lead to 5-2 moments later, Middle Tennessee went on a 15-5 run to take a 20-7 lead midway through the first half.
Troy fought back into the game, after being down by as 16, to trim the lead to 11 at 29-18 with 9:56 remaining in the opening half on an Odem 3-pointer. After Middle Tennessee opened a 41-23 lead, the Trojans went on a 7-0 run with the hot-shooting of O'Darien Bassett. The senior guard scored all seven points in the run on a 3-pointer, a 15-footer and a 12-foot jump shot. The run trimmed the lead to 41-30 with just minutes remaining in the first half.
The Trojans shot just 37.8 (17-of-45) percent from the floor and 26.9 (7-of-26) percent from behind the arc in the loss. Meanwhile, Middle Tennessee shot 63.3 (31-of-49) percent from the floor and 45 (9-of-20) percent from behind the arc.
Kanaskie paced five Middle Tennessee players in double figures with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting from the floor. Johnson added 14, Desmond Yates and Hudson 13 each, and Demetrius Green 11 in the victory.
Bassett led Troy with 19 points, while Odem and Justin Jonus added 12 each in the loss.
The Trojans now must wait for the completion of Sun Belt Conference play Saturday night to determine their first round opponent of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament; likely to be announced later Saturday night.
