Troy University Athletics
Trojans Focus on Next Game: Arkansas State
2/4/2009 6:00:00 AM | Basketball (W)
TROY, Ala. - Since he stepped onto the Troy campus over seven years ago, Troy head women's basketball coach Michael Murphy has always gone by the same motto when referring to the schedule. That motto, "We focus on the next game on our schedule, and that is what we prepare for", is the slogan that the Trojans are going by for the remaining seven games on the schedule.
With seven games remaining in the regular season, four of which are at home, the Trojans find themselves in a log jam surrounding the four through 10 seed for the upcoming Sun Belt Conference Tournament. Currently, the Trojans find themselves in 10th place just one-half game behind Arkansas State.
The Trojans can overtake that position Wednesday night when they take on Arkansas State at 7 pm at Trojan Arena. The game can be heard on WTBF-94.7 FM with Jerry Miller bringing you all of the play-by-play action. He will be joined in the second half by Buddy Johnson.
Troy (9-12, 4-7 Sun Belt) dropped their last game to the University of Denver at Trojan Arena, but only one team within reach won their game Saturday night. That kept the Trojans within two games of the fifth seed and just two and half games from the four seed in the upcoming conference tournament. Of the seven remaining games the Trojans have, they will face four teams that are within two and half games of each other in the race for the conference tournament.
But the Trojans must focus on tonight's opponent, Arkansas State University (10-11, 4-6 Sun Belt). The Red Wolves come into the game after defeating WKU Monday night in a make-up game originally scheduled for last Wednesday night. Before the game against WKU on Monday, the Red Wolves were off for nine days due to the ice storm that went through the Midwest last week.
They are led by junior guard Ebonie Jefferson, averaging 11.1 points per game this season (including averaging 12.7 points per game in conference play). Last week, Jefferson scored a career-high 21 points in a 10-point victory over North Texas. She is the lone Red Wolve averaging double figures this season, with Veronica Smith averaging 9.4 points, Sherina Scott 9.3 points and Shania Hurst 9.1 points per game this season.
Arkansas State is outrebounding their opponents by just one rebound per game, while they are outscoring their opponents 63.6 to 63.4 on the season.
Meanwhile, Troy comes into the contest after falling to Denver late Saturday night. The Trojans led at halftime, but couldn't overcome the outside shooting and free throw shooting of the Pioneers, who connected on all 10 of their free throws in the final minutes of the contest.
Senior guard/forward Kylie Morrissy continues to lead the Trojans, averaging 16.7 points per game in both conference and non-conference games. She also grabs five rebounds, dishes out 2.8 assists per game and shoots 42.8 percent from the floor on the season. Sophomore Donette McNair is the only player for the Trojans averaging double figures, scoring 11.6 points per game (11.0 during Sun Belt Conference play). She also grabs 7.9 rebounds per game, sixth in the Sun Belt Conference.
The last time these two teams met, Arkansas State came away with a 66-48 victory in Jonesboro. In that contest, Amy Lewis led the Trojans with 18 points, while Morrissy added 17. Arkansas State leads the all-time series 3-1, with the Trojans winning the last game played in Trojan Arena in the series.
The game will be carried live on WTBF-94.7 FM, beginning with the pregame show at 6:45 pm. Live stats and webstreaming will be available through Trojan GamePass.
