Troy falls on the road at Miami (Ohio)

The Troy men’s basketball team couldn’t string together enough possessions on offense or defense to climb out of its second half deficit, falling to Miami (OH) 69-62 at Millett Hall in the MAC-SBC Challenge on Saturday afternoon.

Tayton Conerway once again shined, scoring a game-high 20 points on 8-14 shooting but it wasn’t enough as Troy (15-9, 8-4 SBC) struggled to slow down a high-powered Miami (18-5, 9-1 MAC) offense that had three players score in double-digits.

Both teams came out of the gate slow on offense, as Miami led 6-3 at the first media timeout. The Trojans started to come alive following the under-12 timeout, going on a 9-0 run to take a 17-12 lead with nine minutes to play before halftime. Conerway had six straight points during the run.

With Troy leading 26-21 with 3:52 left in the half, the RedHawks went on a 11-3 run to take a 32-29 lead into the break. Troy has struggled this season when trailing at halftime and are now 1-6 in those games. The lone win came against Marshall on Jan. 4.

The Trojans shot 35.7 percent in the half and got 10 points from Conerway. The RedHawks buried five threes and shot 40.7 percent.

Troy couldn’t replicate the success it had in the middle of the first half in the final 20 minutes, as Miami led for the rest of the game. The Trojans never tapped out, though, and were able to cut Miami’s 12-point lead with 1:48 left in the game down to six with 41 seconds left. A few calls went against the Trojans late, and they were unable to mount the late comeback.

Miami shot it well in the second half, going 14-30 (46.7 percent) from the field and 5-12 (41.7 percent) from distance. Troy was also more efficient in the second half, shooting 42.9 percent.

Troy finished the night at 39.3 percent shooting, while Miami was at 43.9 percent. The RedHawks also made 10 3-pointers compared to Troy’s six.

In addition to Conerway’s 20-point performance, Thomas Dowd had 13 for the Trojans on 5-11 shooting, including a team-high three 3-pointers. Dowd also led Troy with eight rebounds, while Conerway was just behind him with seven.

Troy did a good job in creative havoc on the court, as it forced Miami into 18 turnovers – 14 coming off steals. However, the Trojans didn’t capitalize on it, scoring just 13 points off turnovers compared to the RedHawks 22.

Evan Ipsaro led Miami with 15 points, including seven made free-throws.

“They were just better, and that’s the bottom line. They hit shots. They are so hard to guard. They just spread you out and move around the pass. They’ve got good players who make great decisions. We tried to speed them up, be aggressive, be tough on the ball but they created a lot of turnovers. We weren’t very good offensively.”

The Trojans return to conference play on Wednesday when they travel to Louisiana for a 7:30 tipoff in the Cajundome. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ and the Troy Sports Media Network.