Offensive Explosion on Senior Day Leads to 21-Point Victory

Friday, February 24

Troy, Ala.

6:30 p.m.

Troy University

19-12,11-7Sun Belt

Coastal Carolina

11-19,5-13Sun Belt

Coastal Carolina

Troy

Offensive Explosion on Senior Day Leads to 21-Point Victory

2/24/2023 10:26:00 PM | Basketball (M)

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By: Troy Athletics Communications

TROY, Ala. – A season-high 17 triples from the Troy men's basketball team secured the 95-74 victory on Friday night in Trojan Arena to conclude the regular season.

With wins in six of their last seven games, the Trojans (19-12, 11-7 SBC) secure the fifth seed, holding the tiebreaker over Old Dominion. Troy also wins its most games at home since the 1999-00 season with 11.

On senior day, junior Christyon Eugene shined with a team-high 19 points on five made threes. Following him were seniors Nelson Phillips (16), Darius McNeill (14) and Zay Williams (13). Five Trojans ended in double-figures (Aamer Muhammad – 10 / Jackson Fields – 10) as seven players hit a triple.

Antonio Daye Jr. did his part for the Chanticleers (11-19, 5-13 SBC), who were guaranteed the 12^th seed before tonight. With 28 points and nine rebounds on 11-of-15 shooting, Daye Jr. was a shining light for CCU. Outside of him was another Jr. in Jimmy Nichols, who ended the night with 15 points. However, 18 turnovers couldn't allow them to keep pace with Troy.

Threes for Days
A shaky start in the first 0:27 after Nichols Jr. took the assist from Wilfried Likayi and put the first points on the board inside, 2-0, was flipped upside down from behind the arc.

Eugene struck first, taking it himself and cashing in to take Troy's first lead of the game. That would be the only lead change in the game, 3-2, with 19:12 left in the first.

The next to hit was Phillips off the dish from Kieffer Punter. Nichols Jr. had the ball until Williams swiped it away for the fastbreak 3-pointer by Phillips, 6-2.

Williams wasn't done either, crashing the boards after Nichols Jr. missed a three of his own. Punter found Williams at the top of the key, and he drilled the third straight three for Troy, 9-2, which set the tone for the remaining 18:20.

Different Half, Same Script
The second half opened with the Chanticleers cutting down the 49-31 deficit with back-to-back layups, 0:43 in, by Nichols Jr. and Daye Jr. The second by Daye Jr. led to an and-one conversion, 49-36.

Troy responded with two points of its own inside by Phillips, 51-36. A miss by Josh Uduje allowed Phillips to draw the foul on the floor. The inbound went to McNeill, passing it outside to Eugene, who nailed the triple to extend the lead to 18, 54-36 – 18:22 on the clock.

Both sides exchanged turnovers, but Phillips's steal off a bad pass from Uduje led to another McNeill to Eugene connection from deep, 57-36.

The Trojans coasted to the win, extending the lead to as much as 29 after McNeill hit two free throws with 4:37 left. Ultimately, the Trojans secured their 11^th win in Trojan Arena, holding off a small run by CCU to cut the deficit to 21, 95-74.

Head Coach Scott Cross
"It was an offensive explosion. Our guys really moved the ball. I thought we did take good shots. I thought we played together. Obviously, 16 assists speaks that we were sharing the basketball. I thought we flew around defensively, but the steals we were able to create that was obviously the bright side of our defense. We wanted to hold them under 40%, but we didn't quite get there down the stretch. Those maybe last 5 minutes; we gave up too many layups and offensive rebounds, but you can't be upset about a 95-74 win in the last game. Just super thankful that we were able to send our seniors out on a positive note because those guys have put a lot into the program and worked very, very hard. I'm just very, very thankful for an opportunity to coach those guys."

Finale Fun Facts
• With 11 wins in Trojan Arena to conclude the 2022-23 season, the Trojans secured the most wins since its construction in 2012.
• The Trojans scored 51 points from behind the arc on 17 made 3-pointers for a season-high – previous season-high was 16 against SUNO.
• Fields produced a career-high of 10 points on 3-of-4 shooting. His previous career-high was eight points scored three times against Tennessee Tech, Southeastern Louisiana and James Madison.
• With seven rebounds, Williams is 19 rebounds away from being the all-time leading Division-I rebounder at Troy.
• The Trojans redeemed themselves at the charity stripe, going 20-of-24 from the line for 83.3 percent. The 83.3 percent ends a two-game stretch where the Trojans shot below 70 percent.
• Troy dominated the turnover battle, forcing CCU to commit 18 turnovers compared to its nine. Of the 18 turnovers forced, the Trojans scored 31 points.

Pensacola Bound
The Troy men's basketball team will face either Coastal Carolina or Arkansas State on Thursday in the Pensacola Bay Center at 2 p.m., pending Wednesday's results.