HOT SPRINGS, Ark. ? The most successful season in the Sun Belt Conference for the Troy University Trojans came to a close in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament Saturday afternoon.
The fourth-seeded Trojans battled injuries and illness to get to Hot Springs, falling to fifth-seeded South Alabama 52-39 in the second game of the day at Summit Arena.
“Obviously it was a tough loss,” Troy coach Michael Murphy said. “It was a disappointing way to end the season, but when you get to a postseason tournament, you want to win. I don't want this loss to take away from a great six weeks we have had, especially in the month of February. We're disappointed, but we're very encouraged about our future.”
Troy (16-14), before the month of February, was looking at being the 11th seed in the tournament. However, a 6-1 month and winning eight of 10 games had the Trojans locked into a home game and dreams of becoming the third seed in the tournament.
The month of February was the best month of basketball the Trojans have had under Murphy since joining the Sun Belt Conference.
Unfortunately, South Alabama (21-10) was waiting in Hot Springs ? setting a third matchup this season. In the first two games, the two teams changed leads an average of 17 times per game, but on Saturday the two changed the lead just three times. Most of that was attributed to South Alabama pulling down eight more offensive rebounds than the Trojans.
“I thought we did a really good job with our half court defense,” Murphy said. “We held to 30 percent shooting but we gave up 11 offensive rebounds, and when you have a game like you had tonight where both teams are really struggling offensively; those second-chance opportunities are gold. That's Willy Wonka's ticket, and they just came up with a few more than we did.”
Both teams struggled throughout the contest, combining for just 26 points over halfway through the first half; just a week after they played each other at Trojan Arena and the two teams combined for 129 total points.
The two teams struggled to find their offensive identity in the first half, with the Lady Jags shooting 36 (9-of-25) percent from the floor and the Trojans 35 (7-of-20) percent in the opening 20 minutes.
Throughout the contest, both of the team's leading scorers struggled offensively but ended with impressive nights. South Alabama's Jessica Starling struggled to score four first half points, but ended the night with 13 thanks to shooting 8-for-10 from the charity stripe. Meanwhile, Troy's Kylie Morrissy was held to eight first half points and finished with 18 with a perfect night from the charity stripe (6-of-6).
“Last week I felt we had a lot more energy on the court,” Morrissy said. “We never got into our groove tonight. We never got into that comfort zone, and we struggled to find that comfort zone, whereas a week ago we here in that comfort zone. We were flowing, our defense was flowing into our offense. This game today, it wasn't the same.”
South Alabama built a double-digit lead midway through the first half, but the Trojans were able to trim into that lead with free throws from Donette McNair. Unfortunately, Troy was unable to keep the momentum with foul trouble and fatigue.
Morrissy, who was playing sick, led the Trojans in scoring; while junior Alyce Shearing scored 12 points and added 11 rebounds, while playing sick. Shearing was named the State Farm Insurance Player of the Game for the Trojans.
Morrissy finished her career at Troy as the school's sixth-best scorer with 1,530 points. She leave the university as the third highest scorer in the Division I era for the Trojans.
Meanwhile, senior point guard Larelle Roper finished with her career with 431 assists with her one assist against South Alabama Saturday afternoon. The career total ties her with Kelly Hoover of VCU for 20th all-time in the conference in that category. She was not expected to play on Saturday after suffering a leg injury on Friday that impaired her ability to cut quickly, but she played 31 minutes in her final collegiate game.
The Trojans shot 31 (13-of-42) percent from the floor for the game, while shooting just 20 (1-of-5) percent from beyond the arc. They also shot 66.7 (12-of-18) percent from the free throw line.
Meanwhile, South Alabama was led by Shakira Nettles and Starling with 13 points each. Meanwhile, the Trojans held South Alabama to just 29.6 (16-of-54) percent shooting from the floor and 18.2 (4-of-22) percent from beyond the arc.
South Alabama advances to play top-seeded Middle Tennessee in the semifinals on Monday afternoon, while the loss by the Trojans ends the careers of Morrissy, Roper, Danielle Realph, Staci Mitchell and Brittnie Davis. The five ended their season with a winning record and a second-place finish in the East Division this season.
