Troy University Athletics
Troy University
South Alabama
Troy Knocks Off USA in Overtime
1/31/2010 3:00:00โฏAM | Basketball (M)
TROY, Ala. (AP) -- Brandon Hazzard scored 17 points and Michael Vogler had 15 as Troy defeated South Alabama 73-66 in overtime on Saturday night.
Vogler and Yamene Coleman each scored six points in overtime for the Trojans (12-10, 7-4 Sun Belt Conference), who avenged a last-second 69-67 loss at South Alabama on Jan. 16.
Troy built a six-point lead, then went 6-for-6 from the free throw line in the final 26 seconds to seal the win.
Coleman finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Trojans, who won back-to-back games for the first time since Jan. 2.
Tim Williams had a career-high 28 points and 12 rebounds for South Alabama (12-11, 4-7), which has lost four straight and seven of its last eight.
The Jaguars led 30-21 at halftime. With 2:12 to go, Williams hit two jumpers for a 57-54 South Alabama lead. Richard Delk tied it on a 3-point play with 1:51 left in regulation.
Troy Notes
- Troy head coach Don Maestri improved to 56-54 all-time against current members of the Sun Belt Conference
- Richard Delk became the second Troy player to reach the 1,000-point plateau this season when he scored 10 points in Saturday's home win over South Alabama. Delk, whose point total includes 279 points scored in two seasons at Mississippi State, joined Brandon Hazzard in the 1,000-point club and became the first pair of teammates to accomplish the feat in the same season for Troy since Rhodney Donaldson and Jeff Black both accomplished the feat during the 1996-97 season
- Mike Vogler handed out seven assists against the Jags, moving into a tie for 20th place with former DU guard Rodney Billups on the Sun Belt top 25 assist list. Vogler has 418 for his three-year career, a Troy Division I record
- Center Yamene Coleman posted his seventh double-double of the year with 14 points and 13 rebounds against the Jags. Seven establishes a new Troy record since joining the Sun Belt. Coleman's seven double-doubles is second in the league behind North Texas' George Odufuwa who has eight
- Brandon Hazzard emerged from his scoring slump on Saturday against USA. After scoring five combined points in his two previous games, the senior All-SBC performer chipped in a team-best 17 points and hit four 3-pointers to help Troy to the overtime victory
- The win over USA was Troy's first overtime game of the season. Last season Troy won its only overtime game, ironically a late January league game with Denver
- Troy entered Saturday's game hitting a Sun Belt-worst 55.6 percent from the free throw line in league games. The team connected on 81 percent (17-of-21) of its attempts on Saturday, including 8-of-9 in overtime.
- The crowd of 2,482 that witnessed Troy vs. USA in Trojan Arena was the largest home crowd for the Trojans this season.
Troy Quotes
Senior center Yamene Coleman
On what the deciding
factor of the game was... I think this came down to free throws towards the end.
Everybody got up to the free throw line and settled down and knocked them down.
I think it came down to free throws and that was good for us. On the significance of
the free throw practice early in the day... I think that helped us out, too, having a little game at the
free throw line. It paid off for us in the end. On his secret to his
recent success at the foul line... Really, to be honest, the secret for me is to just go up
there and just shoot it. I don't worry about it anymore. I just relax and shoot
it. If I miss, I miss. If I make it, I make it. On what helped the
team step up at the foul line... I think when coach told us that we were dead last in the
conference in free throws, I think that everybody took that to heart. Nobody
wants to be last. I think the players took that to heart to work on the free
throws. We are trying to step up to next-to-last at least, instead of being
last. On South
Alabama's hot shooting early... Yeah, that was kind of weird. They were pretty hot from the
3-point line in the first half. We knew we needed to get up in them a little
bit and get them uncomfortable.
Junior guard Vernon Taylor
On the team's new take on free throw practice...
When we were shooting around today, when we usually have a 3-point contest, everybody was shooting free throws today. Seeing who could go best out of five.
On what the secret was to the team shooting better at the line...
That's all it is, that and having confidence. That is basically all. Coach Maestri said, 'from now on, we are going to come in here and have this free throw contest during shoot-around and we are going to knock them down.' So, I'm pleased that the seniors stepped up. The seniors stepped up a whole lot. We did pretty good today.
On South Alabama's hot shooting early...
Times like that when a team is knocking down shots, you can't really worry. Basketball is a game of runs. They are going to make their runs. We are going to make our runs. Eventually, they will slow down a little bit so we can catch up to them, just like they did. We brought the energy - everybody.
On the chemistry displayed by Troy on Saturday...
It's such a beautiful thing when a team can come together like we did and just get this victory out. It shows how close we are, how close we are getting and how good we can be. It was good seeing that.
On any additional motivation playing USA...
They stole one from us, so we had to get this one. We had to get this one.
Head Coach Don Maestri
The game started off and I didn't think we were executing
very well. We weren't shooting the ball very well. Defensively, we were not as
focused as I thought we would be in a game like this. We put ourselves in a
tough position by getting behind early in the fisrt half. The second half, we
came out and still didn't execute extremely well, but we were not panicked. You
could see it in the timeouts. I thought we had a look in our eyes, that we were
going to refuse to lose the game. Then they started to execute and be more
patient, rather than rush to get a shot. This is a four or six-point game. Then
when we caught up, I could remember saying to them, 'Look, this is a tie game.
We are not trying to catch up anymore. You don't have to rush.' Tonight, which we haven't done this in a long time, we made
free throws to finish the game. I think we shot around 81 percent for the game.
But in the last three minutes when you are getting fouled all the time, I think
Yamene made 4-for-4, Brandon
was 2-for-2, Delk was 2-of-2, Mike was 2-for-2. So we were probably about 9 out
of 10 for free throws and that is how you have to finish a game. You have to
make key free throws. Tonight was a great thing to see that we can finish the
game by making all our free throws. Tonight may make them realize the real importance of free
throws - when you win a game like this, and you can pull it off by making free
throws when you are ahead. I think we were up two and Brandon made two that put us up four, maybe.
Then we got the ball back and made two more and we're up six. They hit a three,
but we make two more and you are up five. Then you are really keeping the
pressure on the other team when you are making those free throws. 20 seconds or
30 seconds at the end of a game is a long time. You can get fouled three times
and if you miss the free throw and they score, then you are in a two-point game
or a one-point game and boy, the pressure is back on you. I was happy to see
them do something they have worked on the last couple of days and that was the
free throw shooting.
