Troy maintains their winning streak with a victory over App State

Troy women’s basketball took off in the second quarter and never looked back to defeat App State, 85-68, in the Holmes Convocation Center on Thursday night with a third straight league victory.

A double-digit victory in Boone keeps the Trojans (9-7, 3-1 SBC) undefeated in Boone, N.C. (9-0), as they hand the Mountaineers (7-7, 3-1 SBC) their first conference loss to leave James Madison the lone undefeated team in league play.

For the second time in a week, the Trojans had two players end the game with 20-plus points. Zay Dyer led the way with her ninth double-double on a 22-point, 16-rebound performance – the only SBC player with 5-plus double-doubles. Ashley Baez was close behind with her 13th game in double-figures, setting a career-high on 9-of-14 shooting for 20 points. She also led Troy with four steals. For the first time in her career, Briana Peguero recorded a double-double (13 points, 10 assists), becoming the second active Trojan (Shaulana Wagner) to have double-digit assists in a game.

App State entered the day as the league’s leader in field goal percentage (44.4) but mustered 31.6 percent shooting in the loss while allowing Troy to have its first game above 50 percent shooting at 50.7. Zada Porter dominated the scoreboard for the Mountaineers with 18 points off four triples. Three other Mountaineers ended in double figures via Eleyana Tafisi (11), Elena Pericic (10) and Emily Hege (10).

Troy and App State opened the second quarter tied at 16 before the visitors looked to Dyer to grab the early lead. Dyer took the assist from Peguero and converted the jumper at the 0:34 mark before Brianna Jackson rejected Emily Carver’s shot.

After both sides exchanged turnovers, Peguero went on a six-point burst to give Troy the eight-point lead with 7:16 remaining, 24-16. Dyer had the ball before finding Leilani Guion in the corner. No. 35 made the extra pass to a wide-open Peguero for three, 21-16. The senior guard followed it by going on the fastbreak, fighting through the contact for the and-one.

App State brought the margin down to six, 31-25, with 4:49 remaining in the half when Porter made the 3-pointer. Emani Jenkins matched it 0:13 later as she banked in her eighth point of the quarter, 34-25. On the next possession, Adriana Jones converted her first points of the afternoon, taking the fastbreak to the hole and pushing Troy’s lead to double-digits, 36-25.

A triple from Tafisi trimmed the margin back to single digits with under a minute to go, 38-31. However, Troy quickly turned it back to an 11-point lead, 42-31, when Guion converted inside, 40-31. A bad pass from Hekla Nokkvadottir got intercepted by Baez, and she took it coast-to-coast to end the half, 42-31.

App State drew first as it scored on the second half’s opening possession when Hege drilled a triple, 42-34. Over the next 4:02, Troy opened the floodgates, outscoring the Mountaineers 14-6 to hold a 16-point lead, 56-40, finishing on a Baez triple.

At the 8:19 mark, Porter brought App State back within nine, 61-52, converting the and-one down low. The final minute of the third saw Troy balloon the lead back to 15, 67-52, with 0:27 left. Khila Morris opened the 6-0 run with a lay-in, followed by a second-chance layup by Dyer and a steal-score for Baez.

Some physical play by the Mountaineers brought them back to a nine-point deficit, 74-65, as Tafisi and Asjah Inniss went back-to-back off a Troy miss with 3:17 left.

Troy stopped the rally shortly after off a layup and free throw by Peguero and a pair of free throws from Dyer at the 7:39 mark, 78-65. Carver managed one more bucket off an and-one for App State, 79-68, but Troy put the finishing touches at the free throw line to knock off the Mountaineers, 85-68.

“I’m extremely proud of this team for coming up to App State and beating the team leading the league in points and is undefeated in league play. It’s been a long trip, and we were without two key players, so to come together the way they did and get the win makes me beyond proud. This game is exactly what you want to see as a coach. Zay did everything right. She was tough when she needed to be tough and dished it out when she saw the opportunity. And Bri has been playing like the best player in the conference. And she came in today and got her first double-double, which is a huge accomplishment for her, especially in assists. Add in the fact that Ashley came in and produced on so many levels. Yeah, she scored 20 points, but what was bigger was her ability to be the best on-ball defender. Now, we pray for safe travels, hoping to beat out this snowstorm and prepare for a tough task ahead of us in Georgia State.”