Troy University Athletics

Balanced Effort, Second Half Surge, Pushes Troy to Weekend Sweep of App State
1/30/2021 7:43:00 PM | Basketball (M)
TROY, Ala. -- Home. Sweet. Home.
For the Troy men's basketball team, it was home sweet home indeed this weekend, as the Trojans used the energy from the home crowd to sweep the weekend series from the App State Mountaineers earning a hard fought 65-59 victory Saturday afternoon inside Trojan Arena.
With the victory, the Trojans (8-9, 3-5 Sun Belt Conference) are now a perfect 5-0 inside Trojan Arena this season and won the season series with the Mountaineers, 3-1.
In the victory, Nick Stampley scored 19 points, grabbed seven rebounds and drew four of his patented charges, while freshman Kam Woods contributed 12 points and a career-best six helpers. Junior Zay Williams scored nine of his 11 points in the second half, while Christian Turner contributed all seven of his big points in the first period.
Leading by just two (32-30) at the break, the Trojans withstood multiple early App State runs in the second period to hold on for the victory.
App State (12-7, 6-4 Sun Belt) led by dangerous senior Justin Forrest started quickly Saturday, scoring 11 of the first 16 points to take an 11-5 lead with 15:52 left in the period.
Led by Stampley, the Trojans rattled off the next six, using four free-throws and a layup from Zay to tie the game at 11 with 11:36.
After a clutch and-one layup from James Lewis, Jr. made it 14-11 Mountaineers, Turner went down and nailed a triple to tie the contest at 14 with 10:28 left in the period.
Over the next five minutes of action, the two teams split the next 16 points, before Turner and the Trojans scored the next five to go up 27-22 with 2:41 left in the period.
Triples from Michael Almonacy and CJ Huntley propelled the Mountaineers to eight of the next 13 to cut the Troy lead to just 32-30 at the break.
After neither side was able to break the ice in the first 80 seconds of the period, Adrian Delph nailed a triple to give App State its first lead (33-32) since the 11-minute mark of the first period.
Back-to-back baskets from Z. Williams propelled Troy to a 36-34 lead with 15:26 to play, before App State used triples from RJ Duhart and Donovan Gregory that were sandwiched by a Woods three to take a slim 40-39 advantage with 13:08 to play.
Then, the Trojans went on a run.
Bolstered by five quick points from Woods and a basket from Stampley, Troy scored the next seven to take a 46-40 lead at the under-12 timeout.
Another triple from Almonancy brought App State to within three (46-43), but two clutch baskets from Stampley and a massive hustle block from Turner gave the Trojans a 50-43 lead with 10 minutes to play.
A Lewis layup cut the Troy lead to just 45-40, but junior Kieffer Punter answered the basket with a triple that gave Troy a 48-40 lead at the under-eight media timeout.
Coming out of the media timeout, the Mountaineers ran a beautiful out-of-bounds play that resulted in a Forrest layup, but Stampley again contributed the answer for Troy hitting a 14-footer with exactly seven minutes left, resulting in the basket plus a foul.
The senior nailed the free throw (his seventh of the game) and sparked a 5-0 Trojan run that gave Troy a 58-47 lead with 6:17 to play.
Down the stretch, the Trojans continued to answer every App State charge, including a mini 4-0 run that brought the Mountaineers to within two possessions (61-55) with 2:42.
On the ensuing possession, the Trojans did miss a pair of shots, but two key offensive rebounds from Zay and Desmond Williams drained 40 seconds off the game clock.
After an errant triple from Forrest cascaded off the Trojans and out of bounds and a timeout from the visitors, Forrest drove the lane and collided with Stampley. The contact was deemed an offensive foul and possession was awarded back to the Trojans.
With the shot-clock winding down and a three pointer from Dez Williams rimmed out, a crucial offensive board from Stampley gave the Trojans another 20 seconds to work with.
Troy took advantage, using a clutch driving layup from freshman Duke Miles with 54 ticks remaining to open a 63-55 lead.
An Almonacy layup and one last Forrest layup combined with a missed free-throw from the Trojans, cut the Troy lead to just four with 30 seconds remaining.
After calling a time out, the Mountaineers pressed looking to force a turnover, but Woods and the Trojans broke half court forcing App State to commit a foul.
The freshman nailed both free throw attempts to give Troy a six-point advantage with 21 seconds to play. Troy forced a miss triple from Delph with 10 seconds to play, which combined with a clutch rebound from Miles, allowed the Trojans to dribble out the remaining time on the clock.
With the victory, Troy improves to 3-5 in the Sun Belt and sits tied with South Alabama in the standings. The Trojans trail first-place Coastal Carolina, who lost today to Georgia Southern by just one game in the loss column.
Troy returns to action Tuesday night when the Badgers of Spring Hill College visit Trojan Arena. Tip is set for 6 p.m.
HEAD COACH SCOTT CROSS:
"In my 23 years of coaching, I've never been prouder to be a basketball coach, and to be the coach of this team. The way our team fought was unbelievable to watch. App State came out and gave us their best punch early. They were playing as hard, tough and physical as any team that we have played this year. Our guys withstood it and I couldn't be prouder of our team. For not breaking and continuing to execute. And then the defensive performance was phenomenal. The way that Christian [Turner] defends for a freshman is something to watch. He's like another Nick Stampley for us. He allows us to give Zay [Williams] a break and he can move his feet and stay in front of guards. He's also really good at walling-up big guys. His effort tonight was amazing all night, and his toughness becomes contagious. When one guy brings it, it becomes easier for the rest of the team to respond. Zay was also phenomenal for us tonight. The offensive rebound he had with around two minutes to go that gave us a new shot clock was probably one of the most pivotal possessions in the game because they were narrowing the gap. He played tough and physical tonight. The sky is the limit for him. Once he continues to get stronger he'll be even more of a force for us."
On the momentum from the sweep:
"We know this is a stretch where we have to make a run. We felt like if we could find a way to win these two it sets us up to go on a little run over the next few games. We're excited we have another game on Tuesday where we can work on some things and give guys opportunities. I'm excited we play Tuesday and then we're looking forward to the Georgia Southern matchup next weekend. We have a little payback on our minds after what happened up there a couple of weeks ago."
SENIOR NICK STAMPLEY:
"It felt great to get the victory tonight. After the win last night we talked about what we did well and what we needed to do in order to win again. I'm just glad we stuck to the game plan and got it done. We played good defense and played hard. I'm proud of younger guys and the bench players for their contributions tonight. It was a big team win for us. We knew that App State was going to try and punch us in the mouth today and that we needed to withstand that run. And we did that tonight. We know when our young core gets more experience that we're going to be a problem in this league."
For the Troy men's basketball team, it was home sweet home indeed this weekend, as the Trojans used the energy from the home crowd to sweep the weekend series from the App State Mountaineers earning a hard fought 65-59 victory Saturday afternoon inside Trojan Arena.
With the victory, the Trojans (8-9, 3-5 Sun Belt Conference) are now a perfect 5-0 inside Trojan Arena this season and won the season series with the Mountaineers, 3-1.
In the victory, Nick Stampley scored 19 points, grabbed seven rebounds and drew four of his patented charges, while freshman Kam Woods contributed 12 points and a career-best six helpers. Junior Zay Williams scored nine of his 11 points in the second half, while Christian Turner contributed all seven of his big points in the first period.
Leading by just two (32-30) at the break, the Trojans withstood multiple early App State runs in the second period to hold on for the victory.
App State (12-7, 6-4 Sun Belt) led by dangerous senior Justin Forrest started quickly Saturday, scoring 11 of the first 16 points to take an 11-5 lead with 15:52 left in the period.
Led by Stampley, the Trojans rattled off the next six, using four free-throws and a layup from Zay to tie the game at 11 with 11:36.
After a clutch and-one layup from James Lewis, Jr. made it 14-11 Mountaineers, Turner went down and nailed a triple to tie the contest at 14 with 10:28 left in the period.
Over the next five minutes of action, the two teams split the next 16 points, before Turner and the Trojans scored the next five to go up 27-22 with 2:41 left in the period.
Triples from Michael Almonacy and CJ Huntley propelled the Mountaineers to eight of the next 13 to cut the Troy lead to just 32-30 at the break.
After neither side was able to break the ice in the first 80 seconds of the period, Adrian Delph nailed a triple to give App State its first lead (33-32) since the 11-minute mark of the first period.
Back-to-back baskets from Z. Williams propelled Troy to a 36-34 lead with 15:26 to play, before App State used triples from RJ Duhart and Donovan Gregory that were sandwiched by a Woods three to take a slim 40-39 advantage with 13:08 to play.
Then, the Trojans went on a run.
Bolstered by five quick points from Woods and a basket from Stampley, Troy scored the next seven to take a 46-40 lead at the under-12 timeout.
Another triple from Almonancy brought App State to within three (46-43), but two clutch baskets from Stampley and a massive hustle block from Turner gave the Trojans a 50-43 lead with 10 minutes to play.
A Lewis layup cut the Troy lead to just 45-40, but junior Kieffer Punter answered the basket with a triple that gave Troy a 48-40 lead at the under-eight media timeout.
Coming out of the media timeout, the Mountaineers ran a beautiful out-of-bounds play that resulted in a Forrest layup, but Stampley again contributed the answer for Troy hitting a 14-footer with exactly seven minutes left, resulting in the basket plus a foul.
The senior nailed the free throw (his seventh of the game) and sparked a 5-0 Trojan run that gave Troy a 58-47 lead with 6:17 to play.
Down the stretch, the Trojans continued to answer every App State charge, including a mini 4-0 run that brought the Mountaineers to within two possessions (61-55) with 2:42.
On the ensuing possession, the Trojans did miss a pair of shots, but two key offensive rebounds from Zay and Desmond Williams drained 40 seconds off the game clock.
After an errant triple from Forrest cascaded off the Trojans and out of bounds and a timeout from the visitors, Forrest drove the lane and collided with Stampley. The contact was deemed an offensive foul and possession was awarded back to the Trojans.
With the shot-clock winding down and a three pointer from Dez Williams rimmed out, a crucial offensive board from Stampley gave the Trojans another 20 seconds to work with.
Troy took advantage, using a clutch driving layup from freshman Duke Miles with 54 ticks remaining to open a 63-55 lead.
An Almonacy layup and one last Forrest layup combined with a missed free-throw from the Trojans, cut the Troy lead to just four with 30 seconds remaining.
After calling a time out, the Mountaineers pressed looking to force a turnover, but Woods and the Trojans broke half court forcing App State to commit a foul.
The freshman nailed both free throw attempts to give Troy a six-point advantage with 21 seconds to play. Troy forced a miss triple from Delph with 10 seconds to play, which combined with a clutch rebound from Miles, allowed the Trojans to dribble out the remaining time on the clock.
With the victory, Troy improves to 3-5 in the Sun Belt and sits tied with South Alabama in the standings. The Trojans trail first-place Coastal Carolina, who lost today to Georgia Southern by just one game in the loss column.
Troy returns to action Tuesday night when the Badgers of Spring Hill College visit Trojan Arena. Tip is set for 6 p.m.
HEAD COACH SCOTT CROSS:
"In my 23 years of coaching, I've never been prouder to be a basketball coach, and to be the coach of this team. The way our team fought was unbelievable to watch. App State came out and gave us their best punch early. They were playing as hard, tough and physical as any team that we have played this year. Our guys withstood it and I couldn't be prouder of our team. For not breaking and continuing to execute. And then the defensive performance was phenomenal. The way that Christian [Turner] defends for a freshman is something to watch. He's like another Nick Stampley for us. He allows us to give Zay [Williams] a break and he can move his feet and stay in front of guards. He's also really good at walling-up big guys. His effort tonight was amazing all night, and his toughness becomes contagious. When one guy brings it, it becomes easier for the rest of the team to respond. Zay was also phenomenal for us tonight. The offensive rebound he had with around two minutes to go that gave us a new shot clock was probably one of the most pivotal possessions in the game because they were narrowing the gap. He played tough and physical tonight. The sky is the limit for him. Once he continues to get stronger he'll be even more of a force for us."
On the momentum from the sweep:
"We know this is a stretch where we have to make a run. We felt like if we could find a way to win these two it sets us up to go on a little run over the next few games. We're excited we have another game on Tuesday where we can work on some things and give guys opportunities. I'm excited we play Tuesday and then we're looking forward to the Georgia Southern matchup next weekend. We have a little payback on our minds after what happened up there a couple of weeks ago."
SENIOR NICK STAMPLEY:
"It felt great to get the victory tonight. After the win last night we talked about what we did well and what we needed to do in order to win again. I'm just glad we stuck to the game plan and got it done. We played good defense and played hard. I'm proud of younger guys and the bench players for their contributions tonight. It was a big team win for us. We knew that App State was going to try and punch us in the mouth today and that we needed to withstand that run. And we did that tonight. We know when our young core gets more experience that we're going to be a problem in this league."
Team Stats
APP
TROY
FG%
.404
.440
3FG%
.280
.318
FT%
.462
.824
RB
32
35
TO
11
13
STL
8
5
Game Leaders
Players Mentioned
𝗕𝗘𝗛𝗜𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗟 - 𝗦𝟭𝟬, 𝗘𝟲
Wednesday, October 15
Football Press Conference (Players) - ULM Game
Monday, October 13
Gerad Parker Press Conference - ULM Game
Monday, October 13
Eric Newell Postgame Press Conference - Tallahassee State College
Sunday, October 12