(PHOTO/Joshua Thurston)
By Caleb Odom
The Trojan women’s basketball team proved no match for SEC foe Florida losing 104-74 at home to the Gators on Wednesday, Dec. 4.
Sophomore guard Ashley Beverly-Kelley led Troy with 19 points while her teammate Ronita Garrett recorded nine rebounds in the loss.
Troy (3-4) fell behind to Florida (6-3) after an early 11-8 lead in the first half.
“We came out strong,” Troy head coach Chanda Rigby said. “I thought we had control of the game for the first two or three minutes it seemed like.”
The Gators took the lead from the Trojans, going up 12-11 with 15:26 left in the first half and didn’t look back.
“We kind of took a step back when they went on a run and we, to me, never recovered,” Rigby said. “We never had the bounce in our step after that.”
Florida took away the paint which forced Troy to attempt 3-pointers, something that the Trojans struggled to do all game with an anemic 14.8 percentage or 4 for 27 beyond the arc.
With the Trojans missing so many shots early in the first half, the Gators were able to pull away with a commanding 56-33 lead at the half.
“We couldn’t buy a basket,” Rigby said. “That would have changed things if we had been making shots.”
With the game out of reach in the second half, Troy continued to fight in vain as Florida made itself at home on the free throw line sinking 24-26 shots from the charity stripe.
After the game, Coach Rigby stressed to her players that this loss has to be used as a learning experience heading into the next game against Evansville at home on Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2 p.m.
“We need to compete for 40 minutes like coach said,” Ashley Beverly-Kelley said after the game.
The Trojans will get that chance this Sunday and the Tropolitan will have the postgame story after the game.
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