Troy women’s hoops run ends in Sun Belt semifinals

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 3 Troy women’s basketball team clawed back after being down by as much as 21 points in the second quarter in the Pensacola Bay Center. But Troy couldn’t fully rally back as its Sun Belt Conference Tournament run ended to No. 2 Arkansas State, 81-66, in the semifinal round on Sunday afternoon.

The Trojans (20-13, 13-5 SBC) run ended in their sixth semifinal appearance in the SBC Tournament (4-2 overall in the respective round) as they fall for a third time to the Red Wolves (20-10, 15-3 SBC), who punch a ticket to the championship round against No. 1 James Madison.

Five Trojans willed their way into double-figures, led by Briana Peguero with 17 points on a 10-of-12 showing at the charity stripe – she also added a team-high four steals. Off the bench, Emani Jenkins lit up the scoreboard from deep with four triples, followed by Shaulana Wagner with 11 and Zay Dyer and Brianna Jackson with 10. The post-player duo of Dyer and Jackson also tallied a double-double with 11 and 15 boards, respectively.

Arkansas State was held to nine triples on 32 attempts but found light with 20 made free throws and 17 field goals for a three-game sweep over the Trojans in 2024-25. On the defensive end, the Red Wolves also kept Troy to a season-low 29.2 percent from the field and won the rebound battle 53-52. Kennedie Montue came off the bench and electrified the Red Wolves in 19 minutes with 21 points off four triples.

After Crislyn Rose opened the half with a jumper, 41-27, Troy continued the attack with five straight points from Jackson, Wagner and Peguero to cut the deficit back to single-digits, 41-32, with 7:28 left in the third. The Trojans would cut the margin to eight, 46-38, with 5:58 left as Wagner and Jenkins delivered back-to-back triples in between a jumper by Mimi McColister.

Troy cut the deficit to six, 51-45, until 1:59 stayed on the clock as Peguero hit the free throw. However, with the help of foul calls, Arkansas State brought the margin up to 18 when the third quarter ended, 65-47, on a pair at the line from Rose.

Jenkins brought the deep range for Troy to open the fourth quarter with back-to-back triples, followed by an and-one from Jackson and a free throw by Fortuna Ngnawo for a 10-0 run with 5:09 left.

The Red Wolves responded with a 7-0 run off back-to-back layups by Zyion Shannon and an and-one by Rose for a 77-62 advantage with 3:21 remaining. A pair of free throws from Peguero and Jenkins’ third triple of the fourth brought one final push by Troy, 72-62, with 2:12 on the clock, but Arkansas State slid the dagger on five straight points from Montue to end Troy’s run in the semifinals.

Troy fired first from behind the arc as Leilani Guion took the assist from Wagner and connected, 3-0, one minute into the ballgame. A miss by Arkansas State allowed the Trojans to run the fastbreak as Wagner found Dyer on the run and she finished for a 5-0 lead with 8:29 left in the first.

Arkansas State didn’t take long to rally back with a five-point burst of their own to tie the game with 7:48 left. The Red Wolves maintained through the rest of the opening quarter, pushing the advantage to seven, 18-11, with 3:33 left on a triple by Montue – Troy pushed the margin down to five, 21-16 when the buzzer sounded.

The Red Wolves caught fire in the first 5:18 of the second quarter, starting an 18-2 run on a lay-in by Rose with 8:58 on the clock. Montue ballooned the advantage to its largest of 21, 39-18, with 4:42 left when she drilled a second straight triple for the Red Wolves.

Dyer and the Trojans would march back before the break as the junior forward capitalized on a steal by Peguero and hit the layup, 39-20, with 4:11 on the clock. Dyer’s bucket sparked a 9-0 to end the quarter after Troy’s all-time leader in free throw percentage, Peguero, hit five straight shots at the line – Dyer ended the half with a jumper to end the half at 39-27.

“We are disappointed to see our run end here. Our team was striving to get back on transition defense, but time after time, we would have to be perfect to stop what they were doing. And that’s tough to ask because they are so good at finding their shots. We were determined not to claw back in this game, and we started right with an early 5-0 lead. But then we started missing easy shots and weren’t rebounding shots we would normally get. It doesn’t take a lot of mistakes to allow Arkansas State to score back quickly. It got away from us in the first, and we were Trojans who battled back. We had groups that went in and laid it all on the line to come back. We did so much better in many ways, but not rebounding and missing shots cost us the game.”

(Courtesy: Troy Athletics)