Troy University Athletics
Trojans Season Ends In Quarterfinals
3/8/2008 6:00:00 AM | Basketball (W)
The Trojans were the lowest seed remaining in the quarterfinal round of the tournament, after upsetting sixth-seeded Louisiana-Monroe Wednesday night.
"I am proud of the way we played to get here," coach Michael Murphy said. "We won three of four down the stretch, we went on the road and won a tournament game and we played our way into the tournament. We were the 11th seed and we didn't back our way into the tournament."
Unfortunately, the Trojans were unable to overcome a strong second half surge by Middle Tennessee midway through the second half. Middle
The run continued after the timeout, with Holt scoring on the first two possessions for MTSU to extend the lead to 53-42 and push the run to 18-2 over a six-minute span. The Trojans struggled from the floor during the run, allowing Chelsia Lymon to drain a 3-pointer from the right wing as the shot clock expired and then going the length of the court for a lay-up with 8:19 to play, pushing the MTSU lead to 58-42 ? the biggest of the game.
Although, the Trojans were unable to overcome the second half run by the Blue Raiders, they battled MTSU throughout the first 20 minutes of the contest, just like they did when they met exactly a week ago in
The first 20 minutes was a half of runs by both teams, with Middle Tennessee using an 11-2 run to pull ahead 29-17 with 4:56 remaining in the first half. During the run, all 11 of the Blue Raiders points were scored by different players ? four different players to be exact. The only person to score more than one basket during the run was Emily Queen.
Meanwhile, the Trojans closed the first half on a 13-1 to pull within a point at the break. The biggest basket of the run was a Larelle Roper jumper from the left wing with just 1.2 seconds remaining on the clock, which did not allow Middle Tennessee time to inbound the ball as time expired in the first half.
During the run to close the half, Kylie Morrissy drained a 12-footer with 4:39 to pull the Trojans within 10, at 29-19. The deficit was trimmed to single digits when Donette McNair stole an errant pass and fed Amy Lewis for a fastbreak lay-up with 4:18 to play in the half. Lewis converted for the Trojans, again, with 3:04 to play in the half on another fastbreak attempt. Trailing 29-23, Morrissy connected on a short jumper; which was followed by a Lewis 3-pointer from the corner to trim the deficit to just one at 29-28.
Holt finished with a game-high 31 points, including 21 in the second half. Lymon was the only other player from MTSU in double figures in the contest, finishing with 14 points.
Lewis finished her career with a 23-point performance, while Morrissy added 15 in the loss.
The Trojans season ends at 13-18, and the careers of Lewis, Audrey Muse, Zena Lawrence, Myra Farr and Laura Lee Holman came to end with the loss in the conference quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Middle Tennessee (20-10) advances to the semifinals to face second-seeded Arkansas-Little Rock Monday afternoon.
