Troy falls to ULL

TROY — Troy’s man-to-man defense still wasn’t good enough to stop UL-Lafayette’s hot hands.

The Ragin’ Cajuns hit 15 threes and 51 percent of their shots on the way to an 83-81 win Saturday at Trojan Arena. The Trojans had a chance to win it at the end, but Michael Vogler’s long 3-point attempt was off the mark.

ULL shot 26-of-51 for the game and jumped out to a 20-7 lead early. Troy battled back, but tied it just once in the first half and cut the lead to one late before a few empty offensive possessions.

After the Cajuns (6-9, 3-2 Sun Belt) hit some threes early against Troy’s conventional 2-3 zone, the Trojans (7-10, 2-3) went to a man-to-man defense and played it for the rest of the game.

“I thought we played good defense,” Vogler said. “We got a hand in their face just about every time. Sometimes there’s nothing you can do about that. It was good defense, just better offense.”

With two minutes left, Vogler hit a shot down low to make the score 79-74. The Trojans forced a 5-second call on the inbounds and Mario Telfair scored down low and was fouled, but missed the free throw with 1:58 left.

The Trojans got a defensive stop, which led to Richard Delk hitting two free throws with 1:24 left to cut the lead to one.

With 35 seconds left, ULL’s Randell Daigle missed two free throws, but the Cajuns got the offensive rebound. Tyren Johnson hit two free throws, and after a
Trojan miss, Emmanuel Adeife hit two free throws.

Vogler hit a three with four seconds left, and the Trojans fouled Travis Bureau, who missed the front end of a 1-and-1. But the Trojans had trouble getting it up the court and Vogler’s shot just missed.

“There was a point in the game with a few minutes left when we got two or three really good defensive stops in a row but we couldn’t cash in,” Troy head coach Don Maestri said. “If we had made the baskets at that point, there would have been some real desperation at the end.”

The Trojans were only outrebounded by five against a much bigger ULL squad, but shot just 10-of-20 from the free throw line. Last week in a 69-62 win over FIU, the Trojans shot 95 percent from the line and missed just one foul shot.

“The thing that really hurt us was free throw shooting,” Maestri said. “This was one of the worst free throw shooting any of our basketball teams have ever had.”

Brandon Hazzard led Troy with 22 points. Vogler scored 15. Kenny Ware scored 13 off the bench, and Delk had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

Bureau, who hit 10-of-11 free throws, led ULL with 21 points. Chris Gradnigo scored 18 but left the game with 17:50 remaining when he hit a three and injured his ankle when he landed on a Trojan player’s foot. Daigle scored 17 and Johnson 13.

“Hopefully we learned how to execute a little better offensively after we make some good defensive stops,” Maestri said. “That type of experience will hopefully help us down the road. I feel like we’re getting better, but it’s tough when you lose.”

Leggett leaves team: Junior forward Chris Leggett left the team this week and transferred to William Carey, an NAIA school where he’s immediately eligible. The move happened shortly after the Trojans beat William Carey Monday. Leggett averaged 3.4 points per game.

Troy women 69, ULL 46: Troy (8-7, 3-2) outscored the Cajuns 48-17 in the first half and coasted to the victory, winning its fifth straight. Kylie Morrissy led the way with 25 points and 19 rebounds, and Donnette McNair scored 12. Eleven of the 13 Trojans that played scored.