Women's Basketball hosts UTA in Battle for Conference Supremacy

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TROY, Ala. – Troy women's basketball will host UT-Arlington Saturday afternoon in what will be the biggest game inside Trojan Arena so far this season. The Trojans and Mavericks each enter Saturday's contest with 6-1 Sun Belt records and tied for first-place atop the standings. A win for Troy gives the Trojans the head-to-head tiebreak as this will be the two teams only meeting in the regular season.

Troy Trojans (15-3, 6-1 SBC)
PPG: 79.7 | REB: 55.8 | FG%: .364 | 3FG%: .278 | FT%: .684
The Trojans earned a decisive victory on Thursday against Texas State, 84-50. In the contest senior forward Amber Rivers became the 24th member of the 1,000-point club after scoring eight points against the Bobcats. Japonica James had a game to remember, tying a career-high with 28 points while setting a new season mark in rebounds with 11, earning her first double-double of the season and third of her career. Alexus Dye also earned a double-double, her team leading third this season, after scoring 12-points and grabbing 16 boards. The Trojan victory helped set up Saturday as the biggest game in the Sun Belt this season. In the preseason poll Troy was picked to finish second while UTA was picked to finish third. Through seven conference games Troy and UTA sit atop the standings.

UT-Arlington (12-7, 6-1 SBC)
PPG: 65.5 | REB: 37.2 | FG%: .441 | 3FG%: .284 | FT%: .643
UT-Arlington enters Saturday with a 12-7 overall record and a 6-1 record in the Sun Belt Conference. Their lone conference loss came on the road at Coastal Carolina where they were defeated, 62-56. UTA and Troy have four common SBC opponents so far this season in App State, Coastal, Louisiana and ULM. Against those four opponents UTA has outscored them by a combined 289-208. Troy has outscored them 313-276. The Mavericks Maria Benson leads the SBC in scoring at 18.4 points per game while averaging 18.8 ppg in Sun Belt games. UTA is shooting 40 percent from the floor this season, the top mark in the conference.

The Series
Troy vs UTA: Troy leads, 7-4
When played at Troy: 4-0
In SBC Games: 604
Current Streak: L2
Last Meeting: L, 65-88 // March 2, 2019 // Arlington, Texas

Trojan Storylines
• Amber Rivers became the 24th member of the Troy 1,000-point club. The senior needed four points against Texas State and scored 8 in the victory
• In their last 52 Sun Belt Conference home games, Troy has earned 42 wins to just 10 losses dating back to the 2014-15 season. They have gone 9-1 in home SBC games in each of the last two seasons
• In the last two season's Troy has posted a 10-3 record when at least one player scores 20 or more points
•Troy leads the country in free throw attempts (474) and second in Free Throw makes (324), offensive rebounds per game (23.7), rebounds per game (55.4) and total rebounds (997). We also rank 2nd nationally in rebounding margin (+14.8) while ranking 12th in scoring (79.7)
• Kayla Robinson has scored 1,078 career points and is just 61 points shy of passing Donette McNair (2007-11) for 10th on Troy's all-time Division 1 points list
• Kate Rodgers is averaging 1.3 blocks per game in conference play, the 4th best average in the SBC. She is also averaging 7.8 rebounds per conference game
• This is Troy's second-consecutive season starting 15-3 and it's the second-best start in the D1 era behind last year's squad that started 16-3. The 1996-97 season they started 14-4 before improving to 20-5
• This will be the first time Troy and UTA have met in Troy since Jan. 14 of 2017. Three of the last four meetings have been in Arlington with one in New Orleans

Broadcast Information
Live Stream: ESPN+
Live Audio: TroyTrojans.com/watch
Radio: Dan Peck on the call at WTBF 96.3 FM & 970 AM

Promotions
• Breast cancer awareness game. The team will be wearing special pink jerseys
• First 250 fans receive a pink ribbon
• A silent action will be held throughout the game and close at halftime of the men's game

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Women's Basketball hosts UTA in Battle for Conference Supremacy

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Players Mentioned

Alexus Dye

Japonica James

Amber Rivers

Kayla Robinson

Kate Rodgers

Troy University Athletics