TROY, Ala. - The Troy University women's basketball team held visiting Georgia Southern to a season-low 22.9% shooting from the field in picking up a 88-47 Sun Belt Conference victory in both teams' league opener on Friday evening at Trojan Arena in Troy, Ala.
The Trojans (6-6, 1-0 SBC) also won their 11th straight in the series against the Eagles (3-9, 0-1 SBC), while sending Georgia Southern to a sixth straight setback. Georgia Southern wraps up the 2017 calendar year on Sunday, traveling to Mobile to face South Alabama in a 2 p.m. central time Sun Belt Conference matchup.
Alexis Foulks opened up the scoring in the contest with a three-pointer, but Troy used an 8-0 run to take a three-point lead at the end of the first quarter, 17-14. The Trojans scored the first six points of the second quarter to help stretch their lead to double-digits at the break, 39-28. The teams were nearly even on first-half turnovers - 10 for the Eagles and nine for the Trojans - but Troy had a 13-5 edge in points off of turnovers.
Troy opened up the third quarter on a 15-0 run to stretch its lead to 54-28 just three and a half minutes into the second half, and the Eagles never got any closer the rest of the way.
Alexis Brown and Hailey Dias-Allen led the Eagles offensively with 10 points apiece, while Nakol Franks added a career-high eight rebounds. Amber Rivers led a quintet of Troy players in double figures with 20 points, while Kayla Robinson added 16 points. Amanda Mendoza, Harriet Winchester and Jasmine Robinson each chipped in 11 points.
"We just didn't make shots," Head Coach Kip Drown said. "We were sitting there in the third quarter, talking on the bench. Our assistants were looking looking at the stat sheet and we said, 'everything across the board right now is pretty well even, with the exception of just not making shots.'"
The Eagles shot just 22.9 percent from the floor (16-of-70) while Troy shot 39.2 percent from the floor (31-of-79). Georgia Southern made just 5-of-22 three-pointers (22.7 percent) while the Trojans knocked down 11 of 26 three-pointers (42.3 percent). The Eagles committed 22 turnovers, compared to 14 for the Trojans, and Troy had a 27-8 edge in points after turnovers.
"We've got to start making shots," Drown said. "We were pleased with some execution things in the first half. Troy took it up a notch, we didn't match it, then they started knocking down shots in the second half really well and pulled away."
The shooting percentage was the lowest for the Eagles since Georgia Southern shot just 22 percent from the floor in a 70-31 loss at UT Arlington on Jan. 2, 2016.
