TROY, Ala. - Troy women's basketball used a 17-2 run in the second quarter to spark a 100-78 Sun Belt Conference victory over visiting Georgia Southern on Saturday afternoon at Trojan Arena in Troy, Ala.
The Trojans imprroved to 18-5 overall and 9-3 in the Sun Belt with the win, while Georgia Southern falls to 7-17 overall and 2-11 in the Sun Belt Conference.
Georgia Southern came out on fire from three-point range, hitting 5-of-7 threes in the first quarter to take a 22-20 lead over the Trojans. But Troy embarked on their 17-2 run over a six minute stretch in the second quarter, turning a two-point 27-25 Eagle lead into a 42-29 Troy lead with 3:58 left until halftime.
The Trojans would end the half with a 14-point lead. Each team tallied 19 points in the third quarter, but Troy hit 7-of-14 three-pointers in the fourth quarter alone to reach the century mark.
Tatum Barber led a quartet of Eagles in double figures with a career-high 28 points, while Hailey Dias-Allen and Alexis Brown each added 11 points and Nakol Franks chipped in 10 points off the bench. Troy was led by Tyra Johnson's 18 points on 6-of-12 shooting from beyond the arc in only nine minutes of play.
Eagle of the Game
Barber blew past her career high by going 9-of-17 from the floor and hitting all five of her three-point attempts, while also adding 5-of-7 from the free throw line. Her previous career high of 20 points had been reached twice this season. She added five assists, four rebounds and a pair of steals on the day. She is only the second person to go perfect from beyond the arc in five or more attempts, joining Mary Perry (6-for-6 vs. Chattanooga, 2/1/99)
Stat of the Game
Georgia Southern shot 56 percent from three-point range (10-of-18), the third game out of the last five in which the Eagles have made 10 or more threes, and the best performance from beyond the arc since the Eagles hit 12-of-20 three-pointers against Troy at Hanner Fieldhouse on January 17th.
Quotables
Head coach Kip Drown's comments on the game
"I thought we had a good first quarter, we really came out to play. In the second quarter, they extended pressure out a bit, and we lost some composure. We forced some things, turned the ball over, and ended up down 14 at half. We came out in the third quarter, got it down to nine or eight, and I thought we were playing hard. But [Tyra] Johnson, number three, just blew up on us. She scored 18 points in nine minutes, all of them threes. I've never seen that before. When she went off like that, it just got away from us at the end."
Next Up
The Eagles return home to Hanner Fieldhouse to host Coastal Carolina in a 6:30 p.m. Sun Belt Conference contest on Thursday, February 21.
