Trojans Open at Alabama State on Friday

Game Coverage: Live Stats | Live Video (N/A)
Game Notes: Troy | Alabama State

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Troy women's basketball team opens its 2013-14 regular season at Alabama State on Friday. The Trojans and Hornets will tip off at 6 p.m. at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome.

Live stats will be available through BamaStateSports.com. There will not be a live video stream. Fans can follow @TroyWomensBball on Twitter for live, in-game updates.

The Trojans enter their second season under head coach Chanda Rigby looking to build off of a 2012-13 season that had many highlights, despite a 7-24 overall record.

The Trojans led the Sun Belt in scoring a season ago (70.2 ppg) and scored 80 points or more in nine games. Troy won its first Sun Belt Championships game since 2009 and also defeated Sun Belt champion Middle Tennessee for the first time in program history.

The Trojans return six players from last year's team, including the top two scorers in Joanna Harden (15.3 ppg) and Ashley Beverly-Kelley (12.1 ppg). Harden and Beverly-Kelley were each named to the Preseason All-Sun Belt team with Harden landing on the second team and Beverly-Kelley on the third.

Troy was picked fourth by the league's coaches in the Sun Belt Preseason Poll, and a group of six newcomers will be relied on to help Troy reach those expectations. Of the six, three come to Troy as true freshman with the other three coming in as juniors from junior college.

Troy has an exhibition game under its belt after defeating West Florida, 110-71, last week at Trojan Arena. Beverly-Kelley led all scorers with 24 points while Harden had 20 in a game that Troy took control of early and never seemed to struggle in.

Alabama State is coming off of a 9-21 campaign in 2012-13 that saw the Hornets finished seventh in the SWAC standings. Alabama State has been picked to finish seventh again by the SWAC's coaches.

The Hornets return Preseason SWAC Defensive Player of the Year Quentori Alford who led the conference a season ago with 9.7 rebounds per game to go along with 8.5 points per game.

Troy is 9-15 all-time against Alabama State, but 13-5 since moving to Division I. The Trojans have won the last two meetings in the series, including a 90-88 win at Trojan Arena last season thanks to a Kourtney Coleman buzzer-beating layup.

For more information on Troy Athletics, visit TroyTrojans.com. Fans can also find Troy on Twitter and Instagram at @TroyAthletics and on Facebook at Facebook.com/TroyAthletics.

Troy University Athletics

Next Event

Related Videos