Troy University Athletics
Troy Falls Late to New Orleans
1/21/2009 6:00:00 AM | Basketball (W)
TROY, Ala. - The Troy Trojans were unable to hold off a second-half rally from the University of New Orleans, falling to the Lady Privateers 64-59 in Sun Belt Conference play Wednesday night.
"Obviously it is a very disappointing loss," Troy coach Michael Murphy said. "We played pretty good for about 30 minutes, now we just have to regroup and get ready to play the next game."
Leading by 10 at the half, and by as many as 16 in the opening minutes of the second half, the Trojans fell victim to a 25-8 run by New Orleans over a span of 10 minutes in the second half to fall behind 56-52 with under four minutes to play in the contest.
"We told them that this team shoots a lot of three's," Murphy said. "They struggled in the first half, and we told our players that they were going to continue to shoot. We told them to not dare them to shoot the ball, and there were a couple of times when we dared Helm to shoot the ball and we gave her enough space. That is something we told them to watch out for, and why we didn't respond I have no idea."
Kylie Morrissy led the Trojans with 18 points, while Donette McNair posted her sixth career double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.
Brittany Helm led New Orleans with 17 points, while Candice McGee added 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Lady Privateers. Ty Felder and Jada Frazier each added 11.
Leading by 10 at the half, Troy took a 16-point lead at 38-22 just 2:30 minutes into the second half when McNair recorded a 3-point play after being fouled on a lay-up. From that point, New Orleans started to rally back into the contest as they chipped the lead back down to 10 at 38-28 with 15:33 to play in the contest.
"When they pressed us early in the second half we were scoring at the basket," Murphy said. "We had some silly, unforced errors that cost us. I thought were in control after first five minutes of the second half when were up 16 points. But then they started shooting threes, and we just didn't guard the three ball well enough which is difficult to accept because we talked about it at halftime."
The Lady Privateers chipped the lead down to 50-48 with 6:54 to play, before Troy was able to respond to push the lead back to four at 52-48 on a McNair lay-up. Cookie Johnson brought New Orleans back to within a point at 52-51 with 6:19 to play in the contest, before a pair of free throws by Johnson with 5:49 to play in the contest gave New Orleans their first lead of the game at 53-52.
New Orleans pushed the lead to 56-52, before Troy trimmed it to two at 56-54 on an Alyce Shearing fastbreak lay-up. From there, the Lady Privateers pushed the lead to as many as seven at 61-54 with 16 seconds remaining, but the Trojans kept fighting to get back into the contest.
Troy trimmed the deficit to 61-57 on a Brittnie Davis 3-pointer with 14 seconds remaining, but New Orleans was too strong down the stretch with their free throws as Helm connected on all four of her attempts in the final 13 seconds for the victory.
With Kylie Morrissy on the bench for most of the first half after picking up her second foul, the Trojans relied on defensive pressure and a 13-4 run to pull away from New Orleans in the opening half.
Morrissy recorded her second foul at the 13:33 mark and never returned to the floor with the Trojans lead 9-4. After New Orleans trimmed the lead to 9-6, Realph connected on a short jumper with 11:06 to play in the half for an 11-6 lead. That basket was followed by a McNair steal and lay-up with 10:47 to play in the half, followed by a Larelle Roper lay-up with 9:13 to play in the half for a 15-6 lead.
The first half run continued for the Trojans when McNair connected on a six-foot jumper for a 17-6 with 8:44 to play in the half, before New Orleans was able to get on the board with 8:32 to play in the half on a Jada Frazier jumper. The basket by Frazier ended a five-minute scoring drought for the Lady Privateers in the first half.
After the UNO basket, freshman Kirsten Smith drained a 3-pointer with 8:15 to play in the half for a 20-8 lead. The run ended when McNair drained a pair of free throws for a 22-8 lead with 7:48 to play in the half.
The Trojans held a double-digit lead for the remaining 7:48 of the half, with New Orleans twice trimming the lead to 10 - the final time at 30-20 with 54 seconds to play in the opening half.
Troy shot 46.2 (24-of-52) percent from the floor and 38.5 (5-of-13) percent from beyond the arc in the loss. They held New Orleans to just 37.5 (21-of-56) percent from the floor and 20.8 (5-of-24) percent from beyond the arc. However, New Orleans made their mark at the free throw line by shooting 81 (17-of-21) percent and by hitting five 3-pointers in the second half after being shut out in the first half.
Troy returns to action Saturday afternoon on the road against UALR. Tip is set for 4:30 pm at the Jack Stephens Center.
