Troy Hangs On Over FIU

Saturday, February 13

TROY

7:00 PM

Troy University

FIU

2/14/2010 3:00:00 AM | Basketball (M)

TROY – It took all 40 minutes for it to be confirmed and there were period of concern, but in the end Troy held on for a 81-78 victory on Saturday night in Sun Belt action in Trojan Arena.

FIU shot 53.6 percent (15-of-28) in the second half to make a game that Troy (14-11, 9-5) led by as much as 10 in the first half a competitive contest that pushed the Trojans until the final horn.

“Obviously, we are very happy and fortunate to win the game,” head coach Don Maestri said. “It's always important to no matter how you play or how the other team plays that you come out at the end on top. We did that tonight. It keeps a little momentum going for us. It would have been a really devastating feeling had we lost this game tonight.”

Troy defeated FIU in Miami 84-68, but the Golden Panthers proved to be an improved squad since that early January game.

“They are a funny team because they beat MTSU at Middle Tennessee and North Texas at North Texas,” Maestri said. “Middle is winning our side and North Texas is right up on their side. You don't always know which team is going to show up when you play FIU. You may play the good team, which is who we played tonight.”

Five straight points by the Golden Panthers (7-21, 4-11) put the visitors in position to tie the game and a 3-pointer by Stephon Weaver gave FIU the lead. Marvin Roberts added a put-back to make it 57-54 in favor of the Golden Panthers with 12:22 left.

Troy took back the lead 60-58 and the two teams exchanged baskets for the next two-plus minutes with neither squad taking a lead of more than three. With 7:22 left, the Trojans trailed FIU 69-68.

Two free throws from Brandon Hazzard gave Troy the lead with 3:47 left and two by Yamene Coleman in the paint off a feed from Richard Delk made it 78-75 in favor of the Trojans with 2:48 to go. Coleman posted his team-leading eighth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

After a free throw by J.C. Otero, Hazzard scored two in transition, but Stephon Weaver quickly answered with two for FIU to make it 80-78 with Troy in command.

Michael Vogler missed a lay-up with 26 seconds left and after a timeout, the Golden Panthers had an opportunity to tie or win the game. Roberts missed a lay-up of his own with five seconds to go and Antywan Jones grabbed the rebound and was fouled sending him to the line for two with two seconds left.

Vogler narrowly missed a double-double of his own with a team-high 19 points and nine assists.

Jones split the pair and a desperation full-court pass by the Golden Panthers went awry as the horn sounded to secure the win for the Trojans.

FIU connected on its first three attempts from deep before the Trojans got their scoring going and eventually took the lead on a pair of free throws by Hazzard at 10-9. Hazzard scored 18 points on 4-of-5 from deep on the night.

Consecutive treys by Hazzard and Vogler ran the lead to 24-15 with 11:32 to go in the first half. FIU trimmed the Troy lead down to just four, but the Trojans widened the advantage back to nine, but Roberts tacked on two as time expired to leave Troy on-top 45-38 at the break.

Roberts paced FIU with 27 points, just two off his career best total.

“We lost some momentum at halftime,” Maestri said. “We had bad timing on that last play at half. We should have gone in with a nine point lead or an 11 point lead. Instead, we almost went in with a six point lead because we shot the ball way too early and gave them a chance to shoot the last shot. When you hold it for the last shot, you have to take the last shot with almost no time on the clock. So when you have a nine-point lead, you got into the half with at least a nine-point lead.

“I thought that changed some momentum right off the bat toward them. It kind of got us where we started struggling early in the second half and next thing you know we didn't have the same intensity that we had the last 10 minutes of the first half. The kids did a good job of winning the game and did a good job of fighting back in the last 7:40 when we switched to man-to-man and really made the game speed up.”

FIU used a 9-5 run to start the second half to slice Troy's lead down to just three, but Delk got a tip-in to halt the run and put his Trojans up 52-47. Delk (13 points) and Jones (10 points) made it five Troy starters in double-figures.

The Trojans are in action next when they welcome in east division leaders MTSU on Thursday night. Tip-off is set for 7 pm.