Troy picks up the win over Louisiana

Three hundred and sixteen days after Louisiana bounced Troy early from the Sun Belt Conference Tournament, Troy gets its revenge on Saturday night in Trojan Arena with an 81-73 victory.

The Trojans (12-7, 6-1 SBC) roll into a six-game win streak, handing the Ragin’ Cajuns their second straight loss in league play as they open 6-0 in Trojan Arena for the fourth time in head coach Chanda Rigby’s tenure.

Troy found itself down after the first quarter and relied on a double-double performance from Fortuna Ngnawo off the bench to comeback. The junior forward earned her fourth double-double for Troy on 13 points and 12 rebounds. Again, Briana Peguero produced on all levels, leading the team in scoring and assists with 16 and six, respectively. She also had two steals and seven rebounds to lead all guards. Emani Jenkins returned to double figures with 10 points on two triples as Troy shot above 40 percent for the sixth straight game.

Tamiah Robinson produced 21 points in 38 minutes of play with two blocks, but a 6-of-14 shooting performance couldn’t outlast the Trojans. Ashlyn Jones scored 11 of her 12 points in the first quarter, followed by Erica Lafayette (13) in double-figures. Louisiana went 0-of-8 from deep in the first three quarters, ending on 33.3 percent with four makes. The third quarter saw the Ragin’ Cajuns unravel as they went 3-of-17 from the field, and Troy held on from there.

Louisiana controlled the first quarter through Jones, who scored 11 points in the first 10 minutes to hold a 21-13 advantage. Jones continued her scoring onslaught as she kept the eight-point lead, 27-19, with 7:21 left in the second on a jumper.

Jackson changed the momentum with one shot as Ashley Baez found her in the corner, and she hit her eighth career triple, 27-22, at the 3:54 mark. Jackson proceeded to swipe the ball from Jones and convert inside to cut the deficit to three, 27-24.

Robinson paused the comeback with a free throw, 28-24, but Ngnawo started it again, scoring inside on a layup, 28-26 off an assist from Leilani Guion – 4:43 remaining. Ngnawo’s bucket opened a 9-0 run that ended on a triple by Baez with 1:58 remaining, taking the 33-28 lead.

Louisiana tied the ballgame up at 33 with 0:47 on the clock off a layup for Skylah Travis and an and-one from Robinson. However, Jenkins secured the halftime lead for Troy, 36-33, when she found Peguero for the fourth triple in the first half by Troy – Nubia Benedith scored inside for UL before the half expired.

Peguero carried her range into the first 0:14 of the second half as she opened the final 20 minutes with another make, 39-35, from behind the arc. Troy opened the floodgates with that make as Guion hit the jumper, followed by a steal and score for Peguero, 43-35, just 1:58 into the third.

The run continued 1:08 later when Baez intercepted the pass and finished four seconds later on a lay-in for Troy’s first double-digit lead, 45-35. Troy’s 13-0 run ended, 49-35, on a free throw for Ngnawo at the 4:03 mark after a 3-pointer by Zay Dyer.

Troy grabbed its largest lead of the ballgame 0:51 later, 53-37, as Ngnawo followed a make from Louisiana with a second-chance bucket, 51-37. Then, Baez intercepted another pass and found Khila Morris for the fastbreak layup.

The final 15 minutes saw Troy match everything Louisiana fired off as its lead never dipped below eight in the 81-73 final score on a free throw for Robinson. Meanwhile, the Trojans ended the third quarter on 50 percent shooting and held Louisiana to 17.6 percent. They carried it into the final 10 minutes, going 47.1 percent from the floor and 7-of-10 at the charity stripe for a sixth straight win.

“It was a great night at Trojan Arena. The players had a very hard-fought win. We got off to a kind of slow start, and a lot of it had to do with how good Lafayette is; they’re a very good team. We had people come off the bench, like Fortuna, who really came in and made an impact quickly, stayed in control and did her job. We had good guard play again. A lot of players contributed a lot. We started doing better in the second half, which swayed things a bit. A goal of ours was to force more turnovers than we committed, and it was dead even. So, we’re getting better. From here on out we’re going to always make other teams force more turnovers. I’m just proud of everyone in the organization. We’re playing better defense than probably since I’ve been here at Troy. We’ve got to be ready for Texas State next; it never ends.”