Tayton Conerway Shines, Troy Beats App State

Thursday, January 2

Boone, NC

TBA

Troy University

App State

Tayton Conerway Shines, Troy Beats App State

1/2/2025 10:11:00 PM | Basketball (M)

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

BOONE, N.C. – Tayton Conerway had his best performance of the season to lead Troy to an impressive 69-61 road win over App State on Thursday night in the Holmes Convocation Center to opens its road conference schedule.

Troy (9-4, 2-0 SBC) put together a gritty final 10 minutes that saw its offense and defense make a plethora of crucial plays to pull away from App State (6-7, 0-2 SBC). Tayton Conerway had a career-night to put the Trojans on top. The senior guard had a season-high 16 points, while going 4-4 from the field – all 3-pointers – and dishing a career-high eight assists. His four 3-pointers were also a career best.

After being off for the last 11 days, the Trojans were slow coming out of the gate, mustering just three points in the first 4:30 of the game. Troy opened the scoring on a 3-pointer by Marcus Rigsby Jr., and App State went on a 10-0 run to take a 10-3 lead into the first media timeout.

The Trojans were just 1-5 from the field and couldn't slow down the Mountaineers offense. Coming out of the break, Troy began settling in and were able to cut the App State led to 12-10 at the under-12 break.

App State founds its groove coming out of the timeout and went on a 7-0 run to lead 17-12 with 9:02 remaining in the first half. With App State on the brink of blowing the game open, Troy went on a 14-3 run to take a 26-20 lead. Jackson Fields buried his first 3-pointer of the season during the run, and Troy ended up taking a 33-30 lead into the break. Going into Thursday, Troy was 8-1 (1-0 SBC) this season when leading at the break.

Rigsby Jr. led Troy with eight first-half points, while Conerway had seven and Thomas Dowd had five. The Trojans shot 48.1 percent during the first 20 minutes, while the Mountaineers sat at 37.9 percent.

Both teams traded buckets for most of the second half, and at the final media timeout of the game with 3:56 left, the Trojans led 57-56. Just over a minute later, Conerway hit a long three-pointer to put the Trojans ahead by four, and the Mountaineers never got within three after that.

Conerway and Dowd each buried a pair of key free-throws to keep App State from mounting a late comeback.

In addition to Conerway's impressive showing, Rigsby Jr. had a season-high 12 points. Dowd also had 12 points, while grabbing six rebounds.
Troy finished the night shooting 43.9 percent from the field, while draining a season-high 12 three-pointers on 35 attempts (34.3 percent).

The Trojans also got great contributions from its bench, which outscored the Mountaineers' reserve unit 21-4. Theo Seng had a team-high nine points off the bench on 4-7 shooting.

App State had little success from the field, going 21-56 (37.5 percent) from the field and 8-26 (30.8 percent) from distance. Myles Tate led all scorers with 20 points, while Jalil Beaubrun had 12. Troy is now 4-0 when holding its opponents to under 40 percent from the field.

Quotable – head coach Scott Cross
"We got off to a bad start, but our guys responded, and I am proud of them for that. It was a good all-around game for us. We had some mental mistakes, but man we did some great things. We shot the ball extremely well. To outrebound these guys, I think is a great feather in our cap. Holding them under 40 percent was another great thing. It's a tough place to win. You're in elevation and we've been traveling. It's our first game back in 11 days. It's a huge win for the guys."

Up Next
Troy is back in action on Saturday afternoon as it travels to Huntington, W.Va., for a matchup with Marshall. Tipoff is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT, and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and the Troy Sports Media Network.

Notables
• Troy is now 11-12 all-time against App State. The Trojans have won the last two matchups and six of the last seven.
• Tayton Conerway had a season-high 16 points. He was 4-4 from the field, with all attempts coming from distance. Four 3-pointers is a career-high for the senior guard.
• Conerway had a career-high eight assists. It's the most assists by a Trojan this season. His previous high was six.
• Also scoring in double-figures for Troy was Marcus Rigsby Jr., who had a season-high 12 points, and Thomas Dowd, who also had 12.
• Troy made a season-high 12 3-pointers. It's previous best was 11, which came against UTSA. The Trojans are now 3-0 this season when making 10 or more shots from distance.
• Troy is now 9-1 (2-0 SBC) when leading at halftime.
• Thursday was Troy's first win this season when scoring less than 70 points.
• The Troy bench outscored App State's bench 21-4 and were led by Theo Seng's nine points.
• Troy outrebounded App State 38-32.