Troy University Athletics
Trojans Face WKU on Senior Night
2/13/2009 6:00:00 AM | Basketball (W)
TROY, Ala. - The Troy women's basketball has four games remaining in the regular season, and find themselves just a half game out of hosting a first round tournament game. However, before the Trojans can focus on the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, they must turn their attention to Saturday night's opponent, WKU, the third best team (record-wise) in the conference.
The game will tip-off at 5:00 pm at Trojan Arena and can be heard on WTBF-94.7 FM with Buddy Johnson and Travis Jarome providing the action. Prior to the tip, the Trojans will honor their five seniors on this year's team including Brittnie Davis, Staci Mitchell, Kylie Morrissy, Danielle Realph and Larelle Roper.
Troy (11-13, 6-8 Sun Belt) finds itself in ninth place, but still within reach of the third place team in the conference at this juncture in the season - WKU - with just four games remaining on the schedule.
The Trojans have relied on their supporting cast over the last few games to gain momentum down the stretch heading into the conference tournament. Junior Alyce Shearing, Davis, Realph and freshman Tenia Manuel have all come up big over the last few games while teams are keying on the Trojans top two scorers in Morrissy and Donette McNair.
"Your best players must play their best at this time of the year in order to have success," Troy coach Michael Murphy said. "Alyce was an absolute stud for us against Arkansas State, scoring a career-high 26 points - we win. Brittnie and Tenia were absolute warriors against North Texas at North Texas - we win. Down at Florida Atlantic, even with all the travel stuff we had to go through, Davis and Realph played well and we win. But they are not getting enough help from our leading scorers, Morrissy and McNair. They have to be a little more productive in this stretch run if we are going to beat teams.
"We have things in place. We are at 80 percent, we are not 100 percent. Our bench was fantastic against Middle Tennessee Wednesday night. We just didn't get enough from our two leading scorers, but I know they will work hard at giving us that over the next few games - starting Saturday against Western Kentucky."
Troy comes into the match-up off a 75-60 loss to conference-leading Middle Tennessee Wednesday night. The margin was the third closest margin that Middle Tennessee has played in conference play, in their 13 games this season.
"If we bring this type of energy to all of our remaining games we will be tough to beat," Murphy said. "If we bring this type of energy and determination to the rest of our games we will be hard to beat. I know players like Brittnie will show up, and if we can some others to show up on that same page to go along with our bench, we will be really tough down the stretch."
The Trojans will face a WKU team that they lost to, back iin December, 75-66 on the road. In that contest, Troy was led by Morrissy with 19 points and Shearing with 14 points and 10 rebounds - her only career double-double. In that game, McNair (who was third in the conference in rebounding at the time) was held to just five points and one rebound. The Lady Toppers were led by four players in that contest, with Hope Brown leading the way with 18. She was joined by Amy McNear with 17, Kenzie Rich with 14 and Jessica Magley with 11. In that contest, Arnika Brown (who was and is first in the conference in rebounding) was held scoreless and to just five rebounds.
For the season, Morrissy is currently fourth in the conference in scoring heading into the contest, averaging 16.2 points. McNair joins her in double figures, averaging 11.5 (20th in the conference) points and is eighth in rebounding at 7.6 rebounds per game.
Brown leads WKU in scoring and rebounding, averaging 15.9 points and a league-leading 12.7 rebounds per game. She is joined in double figures by Rich (14.3 points per game) and McNear (12.1 points per game). Rich leads the conference in free throw percentage at 87.5 percent, while McNear leads the conference in assists by averaging five per game.
"We have played well against Western Kentucky here," said Murphy. "We played very well at their place this season, losing by nine. I am looking for a good outing on Saturday. We are pretty consistent with our practice. We have an identity of how we play, we try to practice to that identity and we tell our kids to practice the way you want to play. We will do not do anything differently to prepare for Western Kentucky other than to come to win, to practice to win, to prepare to do your best. And that will be our focus."
The game is part of a doubleheader with the men's team, and is part of a "Cardinal Out" promotion in which the athletics department is asking everyone to wear cardinal and pack Trojan Arena for both games beginning at 5 pm.
