Second-Half Surge Propels Women's Basketball to Road Win Over South Alabama

Saturday, February 13

Mobile, Ala.

4 p.m.

Troy University

14-5,10-2Sun Belt

South Alabama

11-9,8-6Sun Belt

Troy

South Alabama

Second-Half Surge Propels Women's Basketball to Road Win Over South Alabama

2/13/2021 8:13:00 PM | Basketball (W)

Box Score

By: Troy Athletics Communications

MOBILE, Ala. – For the second-straight season the Troy women's basketball team erased a 15+ point second-half deficit in Mobile to stun South Alabama in the Mitchell Center. The Trojans outscored the Jaguars 24-11 in the fourth quarter to complete the comeback and earn the 84-77 victory Saturday night.

In deja vu like fashion, Troy (14-5, 10-2 SBC) erased a 15+ point deficit with less than 15 minutes to play to defeat South Alabama (11-9, 8-6 SBC). The Trojans trailed by 17 points at the under-five media timeout in the third quarter when they scored 36 of the final 48 points. Leading the charge was Felmas Koranga, who scored nine of her 13 points in the final 15 minutes of the contest. A large portion of Troy's comeback started on the defensive end where it forced South Alabama to turn the ball over 15 times while scoring 11 points off those turnovers.

After a 4-point play by Devyn Lowe gave South its largest lead of the night, Troy didn't allow another field goal of the rest of the quarter while scoring 12 of the final 13 points to cut the deficit to single-digits for the first time since the opening seconds of the second quarter.

With the momentum flipping heavily in Troy's favor, the Trojans continued to apply the pressure and cut away at the deficit point-by-point. After the quarter got started on an Alexus Dye jumper, Jhileiya Dunlap made the play of quarter by muscling through the South defender to get the bucket to go before completing the 3-point play at the free throw line. After trailing for nearly 33 minutes, Troy earned its first lead of the night on a Tyasia Moore layup and then followed it up with back-to-back buckets from Koranga and Janiah Sandifer to complete their11-0 to open the final quarter.

South Alabama attempted to make a mini rally with five straight points, including a dagger triple from Savannah Jones to tie the game back up, but Troy didn't allow South Alabama to grab ahold of any of the momentum. Troy followed up the little run with five straight, including three from Koranga, to extend the lead back to five. Troy's seven-point margin of victory was also its largest lead of the night.

After shooting just 36 percent in the first half the Trojans turned it around and shot 54 percent in the second. For the contest they shot 45 percent on 31-of-68 shooting. For South Alabama it was the exact opposite. The Jaguars shot 56 percent in the first half and just 32 percent in the second while ending the game shooting 42 percent on 25-of-59 shooting.

Dye led the Trojans in scoring with 17 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the floor. Dye extended her double-doubles streak 11 straight games, 16 on the season, with a game-high 18 rebounds. South's Savannah Jones led all scorers with 21.

Who Stood Out
Felmas Koranga played a crucial role late in the game for the Trojans. The junior from Kenya scored 13-points on 6-of-16 shooting while brining down 10 rebounds. It was Koranga's eighth double-double of the season and third in the last four games. Koranga also added three steals and two blocked shots to her totals.

Quoting Coach Rigby
On comeback victory
"It's a bad feeling that we did get so far down to [South]. Our will to win is the good news of the day and it's the great news about being a Troy Trojan. I don't know of another team that has more of a will to win. We came in a halftime and made a commitment to the full court press. We said they've got 94 feet they have to get it up the court every single time in order for them to score and we said they aren't going to get one easy possession. And I don't think they did. Every single possession of that second-half they had to work for it. I'm so proud of our effort and it was a great team effort."

On senior leadership
"This is our second year-in-a-row to come back from a huge hole in Mobile to win, so our team knows they can do it. Our seniors have been there before so they know we can do it. However, I would prefer not to get down so far, but I appreciate our seniors that have done it before and have that belief in their hearts that they know they can do it."

Notables
• Troy improves to 28-24 all-time against South Alabama and 9-15 all-time at South
• Troy has won four straight over South Alabama and 9 of the last 12
• Troy's 4-game winning streak is the longest win streak for either side since the Trojans won five straight from March 8, 2013 to March 7, 2015
• Troy has now won back-to-back games in Mobile for the first time since Feb. 22, 2014 & March 7, 2015. Troy hasn't won three straight in Mobile since 1976-79 seasons
• Joining Dye and Koranga with double-digit points were Jasmine Robinson (15) and Tiyah Johnson (11)
• Troy outrebounded South 45-35
• Robinson led Troy with five assists

Up Next
Troy will play three games this week, all against Georgia State. The first game will be on Tuesday in Atlanta with tipoff scheduled for 1 p.m. (CT). Following Tuesday's game Troy will host Georgia State on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. Saturday's game will also be Troy's senior day.

Schedule Update
Troy's Feb. 16 game at Georgia State has been updated once again. Troy and Georgia State have agreed to move the game time up three hours to 1 p.m. (CT).

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