Trojans Drop Wild Second-Half Shootout at Coastal Carolina

Friday, January 22

Conway, S.C.

5 p.m.

Troy University

6-8,1-4Sun Belt

Coastal Carolina

10-3,4-2Sun Belt

Troy

Coastal Carolina

Trojans Drop Wild Second-Half Shootout at Coastal Carolina

1/22/2021 9:50:00 PM | Basketball (M)

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Troy Athletics Communications

CONWAY, S.C. -- Despite taking a seven-point lead into the break, scoring the first 13 points of the game and leading by as many 14-points, the Troy men's basketball program fell 90-81 Friday night to the high-powered Coastal Carolina Chanticleers at the HTC Center.

In a battle between the favorites for Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year (DeVante' Jones of CCU) and Sun Belt Conference Rookie of the Year (Kam Woods of Troy) it was the elder Jones who willed his team to a come-from-behind victory, scoring 24 of his game-high 30 points in the second period.

After being held to just six points by the stingy Trojans (6-8, 1-4 Sun Belt) in the first period of play, Jones poured in 10 of his 30 over the final three minutes, finishing with the 30 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals.

Not to be overshadowed was the true freshman, Woods, who scored 21 points of the Trojans a D-I season-best 81 points, including 14 in the opening period. Woods hit four-of-six from behind the arc, accounting for a quarter of Troy's season-best 12 triples. The freshman hit all three of his free throw attempts and contributed a career-best five helpers.

Junior Zay Williams continued his strong play of late contributing 16 points and 12 rebounds for his third double-double of the season, while Kieffer Punter contributed a career-best 14 points, five rebounds and four assists.

In his return to action senior, Nick Stampley scored eight points, grabbed seven rebounds, blocked a pair of shots and dished out four of Troy's season-best 19 assists.

The Trojans started quickly Friday using triple from Stampley, Woods and Khalyl Waters to open a 13-0 lead just two minutes and 50 seconds into the ballgame.

After a Coastal Carolina (10-3, 4-2 Sun Belt) timeout propelled the home side to the next four points, the Trojans scored 12 of the next 20 to take a 25-12 lead with 11:01 to go. The key basket of the 12-8 stretch was freshman Duke Miles' first career triple.

Back-to-back layups from Garrick Green and Tyrik Dixon cut the advantage to just 27-16 with 9:45 to play, but a key 3-pointer from Desmond Williams gave the Trojans their largest lead (30-16) of the contest with 8:45 to play.

Then Coastal Carolina got hot. Led by Dixon, Ahmard Harvey and Jones, Coastal used a 15-3 run over the next 5:19 to cut the Trojans advantage to just 33-31 with 3:26 to play.

One last Woods layup gave the Trojans a 35-31 lead, but back-to-back layups from guard Ebrima Dibba to tie the contest at 35 all with 2:14 left in the period.

A triple from Woods, and an and-one layup from Williams pushed the Trojans to a 43-36 advantage at the break.

Opening up with possession of the basketball, Stampley hit a triple just 14 seconds into the final period of play that gave Troy a 46-36 lead.

Needing an answer, Coastal Carolina turned to its star (Jones), who scored seven of Coastal's 15 points over a 13-5 run that culminated with a triple from Jones with 15:31 that cut the Troy lead to just 51-49.

Another Punter triple gave the Trojans a brief 54-49 lead, before two Dibba free throws and a Kevin Williamson triple tied the contest at 54 with 14:03 to play.

After three of the next four went the way of the Trojans, a Dibba juper and a Harvey layup sparked a 13-5 run that gave Coastal a seven-point (69-62) lead with 8:11 to play.

As they did all night, the Trojans led by Zay Williams and Woods, scored eight of the next 13 to cut the Coastal Carolina lead to just 74-70 with 4:39 left.

A pair of free throws from Punter and one last and-one layup from Woods cut the Coastal Carolina advantage to just 76-75 with 3:15 remaining.

Then Jones went into over drive.

Scoring 10 of the next 12 for his club, Jones turned the paltry one-point advantage at the 3:15 mark into a decisive 88-78 advantage with 20 seconds remaining. The junior scored eight of the 10 from the charity stripe. Troy's lone points in that stretch were a Stampley layup and a Williams free throw that tied the game at 78 with 2:20 to play.

Troy will look to earn a split of the weekend series tomorrow afternoon against the Chants a 2 p.m. Central.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
• Woods recorded his second 20-point output in three games and has now scored in double-figures in five of his last six appearances.
• The Bessemer native joins Troy legends Jordon Varnado and Wesley Person becoming just the third Troy true freshman since 2004 to record at least three 20-point games.
• Woods is now averaging 11.3 points and looks to become the first true freshman since Varnado (2015-16) to average in double figures.
• Varnado and Person both eclipsed the 400-point threshold as true freshman.
• He needs just 92 more points over the Trojans' next 13 games to average at least 10 points over the Trojans' 25-game regular season.
• Troy held the fifth-best offensive team (CCU) in the country to just 36 points in the opening period, before the Chants exploded for 54 in the final 20 minutes.
• The Trojans fell for the first time this season when leading at halftime. Troy was previously 5-0 in those instances.
• Jones' 30 points are the most by an opponent since Edric Dennis scored 31 for UT Arlington back in the 2018-19 season.
• Troy lost a game in which it scored 80 or more for just the second time under coach Cross. Troy was 3-1 when scoring 80 or more last season.
• The Trojans fall to 6-4 this season when recording more rebounds than the opposition and have lost back-to-back when winning the rebounding battle.
• Woods' 11.3 points are the second-most by a true freshman in the Sun Belt Conference. Forward Norchad Omier of Arkansas State is averaging 12.8 points.
• Woods has however scored more points (158) than Omier (148).
• Williams' 12 rebounds are his third contest with at least 12 rebounds this season. Zay grabbed 13 boards at North Alabama (Dec. 10) and against Samford (Dec. 16).
• Troy falls to just 2-7 on the road this season and will play one more road contest (tomorrow) before returning home for at least the next four at Trojan Arena.

HEAD COACH SCOTT CROSS:
"Devante Jones was the difference tonight. He willed Coastal to victory, and played about as close to a perfect game as anyone could possibly play. He scored every free throw down the stretch and was able to get to the line in key moments. He's a great player. The tough part is we played about as well as we could have offensively, but we didn't play great defensively. There were three straight possessions that I can think of about five or six minutes into the half that changed the game. There was a steal that turned into a layup then Dez got whistled for an intentional foul that was disappointing because it was a complete momentum changer. It was ended up being a seven-point swing. I was proud of our guys and how we fought back and gave ourselves a chance to win the game. Zay made a free throw that tied the game with just a couple of minutes to go, but they made key shots when they use their 6-0 run to ice the game. You get one-stop it may have been a different game. Luckily, we get the chance to play again tomorrow and redeem ourselves, but I felt like we gave them a gift tonight."

On Woods:
"I remember both Jordon and Wes from when I was at UT Arlington and those are two of the most feared scorers that I can remember in my coaching career. For Kam to be in that company says a lot about his talent level and how well he's playing. He had a great game today. He was very efficient and shot the ball very well. He's been putting in extra work in the gym, so we knew it was a matter of time before he started hitting shots. Kam shooting like that is important because now teams will need to extend the defense a bit which will open up the paint for him."