Troy University Athletics
Troy University
18-10,14-3Sun Belt
Appalachian State
15-14,8-9Sun Belt
Women’s Basketball Clinches No. 2-Seed with Blowout Victory Over App State
2/28/2024 10:10:00 PM | Basketball (W)
TROY, Ala. – A 33-point victory over App State, 102-69, where the Troy women's basketball team scored 102 points on 43.6 percent shooting on Wednesday night in Trojan Arena clinches a No. 2-seed for the Sun Belt Conference Tournament.
Six straight wins for the Trojans (18-10, 14-3 SBC) pushes them over their total win count of 2022-23 (17) and marks the fourth time head coach Chanda Rigby had 14-plus SBC wins in a single season.
It was a career night for Zay Dyer as she scored a season-high 20 points on 8-of-16 from the field and seized a career-high 17 rebounds. Ja'Mia Hollings also got involved for her 10th double-double on 16 points and 11 rebounds – shot 6-of-9 from the field – while Nia Daniel shot 5-of-7 for 15 points. Off the bench, Leilani Augmon entered double-figures (10) on 5-of-8 shooting as all Trojans found their way into the score column.
Coming into the game, the Mountaineers (15-14, 8-9 SBC) were a perennial 3-point shooting team in the country but were limited to 8-of-31 from deep (25.8) to suffer their largest loss of 2023-24 (33) and remain in the ninth slot for the conference standings. Emily Carver (15) and Alexis Black (16) willed App State, scoring 45 percent of the team's points (31-of-69) and 75 percent of the triples (6-of-8).
Over Early
From the moment Porchia won the tip, Troy had the game in hand when No. 10 opened a 9-0 run off an App State turnover 0:50 into the game – Hollings ended the run at the 2:28 mark.
The advantage hung around seven until Augmon hit back-to-back buckets, 19-8, to push the advantage to double digits with 3:04 left in the first. Troy had the final say of the first, ending the quarter with a 13-point advantage, 24-11, on a triple by Sharonica Hartsfield with 0:22 remaining.
Troy kept rolling at the 0:51 mark of the second when Hollings found Makayia Hallmon behind the arc, and she connected, 29-14, to start a 17-0 run that ended with a second-chance lay-in by Dyer, 43-14, with 5:45 left – run saw points by Dyer (6), Porchia (1), Daniel (7) and Hallmon (3).
App State cut the deficit to 20, 44-24, when Black nailed the jumper off a Troy turnover with 3:01 on the clock. However, Hollings took over in the remaining 2:24, scoring five of Troy's nine points to end the half with a 25-point lead, 53-28.
The second half was the same for Troy as Leilani Guion pushed the lead to 31, 68-37 when Dyer grabbed the offensive rebound and found Shaulana Wagner. Wagner drew the defense and found 'Stitch' for three at the 5:17 mark.
Dyer continued her dominance in back-to-back offensive possessions when she got assists from Hartsfield and Gabbi Cartagena to extend the lead to 35, 72-37 – 3:36 left in the third.
Quarter No. 4 saw Troy's largest lead of 37, 89-52, with 6:44 remaining, when Daniel converted the jumper, 82-52, to open a 9-0 run, which capped off with a Hartsfield bucket.
When the final buzzer sounded, the Mountaineers brought the Troy lead to 33, 102-69, but not before the Trojans scored their 100th point for the first time in 2023-24. After a held ball gave Troy possession, Guion found Augmon on the baseline, and she connected with 1:07 remaining for the 100th point of the game.
Head Coach Chanda Rigby
"It was just a really great night tonight in Trojan Arena. I appreciate the crowd for coming and the administration for supporting us. I can't speak enough about how the players played tonight. Our starters opened us with a great start, specifically on the defensive end. They wouldn't let App State get in a rhythm. And when our bench players went in, they played like starters. Everyone on our team contributed and scored. We were really sharing the ball, and it's making us hard to guard. We aren't settling. We are taking the best shot. It's a good feeling to clinch the No. 2 seed and get a double-bye, but we aren't going to feel good until we are No. 1."
No. 2-Seed
• Troy extends its win streak over App State to seven and pushes the win margin to plus-19.1 – series sits at 17-2.
• Dyer scored a season-high 20 points on 8-of-15 from the field with a career-high 16 rebounds.
• The Trojan defense was a menace, forcing 20 turnovers with nine steals and four blocks – scored 25.
• Sara Carvajal Caro notched career-highs in minutes (10) and rebounds (6) while grabbing four points and a block.
• Dyer's 17 rebounds ties Porchia for the most in a single game for 2023-24.
• With 65 rebounds, the Trojans surpassed LSU as the top rebounding team of 2023-24 with one game remaining, totaling 1,338 for 47.78 per game – LSU averages 47.36.
• For the eighth straight season, the Trojans clinch a top-four seed at No. 2 – first time Troy entered the SBC tournament as the second seed.
• With 102 points scored, Wednesday's win improved Rigby's record when scoring 100-plus points to 30-3 and marked the first triple-figure game since ULM on Feb. 11, 2023 (W, 108-82).
Regular-Season Finale
One game remains on the regular season schedule for the women's basketball team when it invites in-state rival South Alabama to Trojan Arena on Friday at 6 p.m.
