Ryan Lee
Staff Writer
The Troy men’s basketball team has dropped two more games on the road this past weekend. The University of Texas-Arlington slipped by with a win on Thursday, Jan. 23, 59-56, while Texas State played more aggressively beating the Trojans with a win 73-65 on Saturday, Jan. 25.
The Trojans are now 7-13 and ninth in the conference following a four game losing streak.
The game against UTA was a nail-biter all the way through. At the end of the first half UT Arlington led by just two points, while only outscoring the Trojans by one the next half. The Mavericks senior guard Reger Dowell sealed the game with a last second 3-pointer made it.
Troy shot just at 34 percent for field goals for the game with 18 of the 53 sinking. In comparison, UT Arlington shot a little better with a 37.7 percent on their field goals.
The luck at the 3-point line was a little better for the Trojans. They scored 8-23, earning 34.8 percent accuracy beyond the arc. However, the men of UT Arlington struggled a little bit at the 3-point line only shooting 8-31, only 25.8 percent.
Fouls seemed to play a crucial role in the development and result of the game. The Trojans only gave up eight free throws, which UT Arlington capitalized on 5-8, but the Trojans received 20 free throws and only scored 12-20 making their rate 60 percent.
The high scorers of the night were senior guards Hunter Williams and Jeff Mullahey both putting up numbers in the double digits, 14 and 12 points respectively.
Several other Trojans lit up the scoreboard throughout the night, and out of the nine players that got playing time; six scored at least 5 points.
The road game at San Marcos was a little bit more one-sided against the Trojans. Texas State pulled a comfortable win out over Troy 73-65. The Trojans had a 38 percent shooting rate for field goals, sinking only 19-50, while Texas State had a 51.9 percent rate, making 28-54.
Even though the 3-pointers were sinking often in the first half, Troy’s percentage dropped to 42.9 percent for the game.
With Texas State shooting 31.3 percent from the 3-point line, the Trojans beat them in that category, but the field goals were too much for the Trojans to overcome. Texas State outscored Troy 36-32 in the first half and 37-33 in the second.
Yet again, the Trojans had several opportunities at free throws, and even though Troy capitalized much better against Texas State, they came up just a little bit short of the win.
Troy made 18-26 of their free throws, nine of which came from redshirt senior forward/center Wes Hinton, who had a career high 24 points. Texas State made 12-17 of their free throws.
The Trojans seemed to be able to score well with seven of the nine players receiving floor time scoring some amount of points.
Williams finished the night with 18 points and senior forward Tevin Calhoun also scored double digits with 11 points.
The next game for the Troy men’s basketball team will be Saturday, Feb. 1,in the Trojan Arena at 7:30 p.m.
