Troy women’s basketball continued its hot streak in conference play, beating Appalachian State and Georgia State on the road, 85-68 and 80-72, both without starting point guard Shaulana Wagner.
The two wins helped push the Trojans to 4-1 in Sun Belt Conference play, including a four-game win streak, after dropping their first conference game to James Madison.
The Georgia State win also marked head coach Chanda Rigby’s 150th win in the Sun Belt Conference, only the third coach in Sun Belt history to do so. She now sits 43 wins behind second place all-time.
“All glory to God for allowing me to do this,” Rigby said in an interview with Troy Athletics. “One hundred fifty conference wins is a lot of wins and I’m grateful for each and every single one.”
The Trojans are now 7-3 in their last 10 games, which included a thrilling win over SEC opponent Arkansas in Cherokee, North Carolina, over the winter break and a four-game win streak in conference play.
The story of the most recent road trips the trio of Zay Dyer, Ashley Baez and Brianna Peguero. The trio combined for 55 of the Trojans’ 85 points against App State and 53 of Troy’s 80 points against Georgia State.
With the loss of starting point guard Shaulana Wagner -- who recorded the first ever D1 triple-double in Troy women’s basketball history against Memphis earlier in the season -- it was a question of who would step up for the Trojans on the road trip.
In the mountains of Boone, North Carolina, it was the junior forward Dyer who led the way, scoring 22 points while adding 16 rebounds, her ninth double-double of the season. Dyer wasn’t the only Trojan with a double-double as Peguero contributed 13 points and 10 assists for her first career double-double performance.
Behind Peguero was another senior guard in Baez who notched a career-high with 20 points against the Mountaineers. Senior forward Fortuna Ngnawo also reached double figures, dropping 11 points.
The Mountaineers kept it close for the first quarter before Troy pushed the lead to 11 and kept it consistently until halftime, going into the half leading 42-31. In the third quarter, the Trojans started strong, pushing the lead to 16 points.
App State would get within nine points two separate times in the fourth quarter but that’s as close as they could get before the Trojans won 85-68.
At Georgia State, it would be similar performances from the trio as Dyer, the Atlanta native, led the way with 18 points and 17 rebounds for her 10th double-double of the season in her first return visit to Georgia State since transferring to Troy from the Panthers.
Following Dyer was the guard duo of Baez and Peguero as Baez contributed 18 points of her own and Peguero chipped in 17 points to lead the Trojans to the victory.
“Last year we did fall short to them [Georgia State] after that buzzer beater and went into overtime so I kind of took it personally,” said Dyer. “Being back home, having so many people come out and support me, I just wanted to put on for my city.”
The Panthers kept it close for the majority of the game as they roared back from a 33-19 deficit to lead the Trojans 35-33 going into halftime. The two teams traded buckets through the third quarter before a 11-0 Trojan run gave Troy a 56-48 lead going into the final quarter.
Troy pushed the lead to 12 for their biggest lead of the game before Georgia State made it 63-61 with just under four minutes left. That was the closest the Panthers got as Peguero hit a dagger five seconds later to help push the lead back up.
The Trojans would eventually win 80-72 to improve to 4-1 in conference play.
Troy next plays at home as they play host to rival South Alabama on Thursday, Jan. 16 at 6 p.m.
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