Troy figures it out, rebounds to knock off rival Troy Athens
TROY >> It’s never good for a team traveling deep into enemy territory to get off to a rough start.
But that’s exactly where Troy found itself early in its game against crosstown rival Troy Athens Friday night. The Colts were held scoreless for the first 4:30, trailed 7-0 and couldn’t buy a bucket against the Red Hawks.
But then head coach Gary Fralick thought it was time for a change. His team stopped pressing, stumped Athens in the half court and went on a roll, outscoring the Red Hawks, 33-12, in the second and third quarters, and pulled away for a 51-38 win on the road.
“They were well prepared for the press,” Fralick said. “They were hurting us, so we took (the press) off and went man to man and did a much better job. We didn’t gamble and we started making some baskets.”
Athens built an early 7-0 lead thanks to its press break. Junior guard Emmanuel Robinson scored five points in the first quarter and his 3-pointer with
4:20 left in the first quarter gave his team that seven point lead. But it didn’t last. Troy slowly chipped away and trailed by two points after one quarter.
The Colts continued to rally and took its first lead at 14-12 moments into the second quarter. Athens would score five
straight points to regain a 1716 lead, but it was the last lead they would see in the game. Troy scored the next nine points and finished the half on an 11-2 run to take a 27-19 lead into halftime. Sophomore Mason Parker scored five of his 11 points during the run.
Troy would open the third quarter by scoring eight of the first 10 points and outscored the Red Hawks, 15-4, to build a commanding 42-23 lead.
“I think we had some good looks there during those middle two quarters that we just couldn’t get down. We let Troy get to us a little bit, take us out of our game,” Troy Athens coach Dave Scott said.
His Red Hawks made a push to get back into the game, scoring the first seven points of the fourth quarter. Senior Brogun Withun hit a pair of free throws and scored inside off a pass from senior Kyree Harper. Then it was Harper who hit a 3-pointer from the corner to cut Troy’s lead to 42-30 with just under six minutes to play in the game.
Troy would push the lead back to 16 on four straight points by senior Zach Penoza.