Troy basketball team seeks to forget tough loss

By Drew Champlin
Published: December 31, 2009

» 0 Comments | Post a Comment

Troy head coach Don Maestri was worried that a heartbreaking loss to Marshall on Monday would linger into today’s 2 p.m. Sun Belt game at UL-Monroe.

But not any more.

The Trojans (6-6, 1-0 Sun Belt) practiced early Wednesday before making the bus trip to Monroe, where they’ll play at ULM (5-8, 0-2) for the second straight year. Brandon Hazzard’s three late in the game gave Troy a 71-70 win last season.

Troy lost to Marshall at home on Monday, as center Yamene Coleman missed three free throws in the last 33 seconds in the 78-75 loss.

“I thought we struggled (Tuesday) in practice and we still showed signs of disappointment, but we came out (Wednesday) morning and I was surprised at how doggone focused they were,” Maestri said. “Everybody was bright-eyed and their focus is on Monroe.”

Maestri is hoping that Coleman, Troy’s fourth-leading scorer at 10.4 points per game and leading rebounder at 7.4 per game, will be able to bounce back. Coleman has hit just 11 of 22 free throws this year.

“He’s a very conscientious kid, and the ironic thing is that he works on his free throws more than anybody on the team,” Maestri said. “He’s always staying after practice to work on them. But the rest of the team believes in him. Nobody’s blaming anybody.”

The win over ULM last year was the second in a 10-game win streak that propelled Troy to a third-place finish in the league. Maestri said that ULM and Denver, Troy’s Saturday opponent at home, are very similar from last year.

“Monroe brings back everyone, plus their leading scorer from two years ago,” Maestri said. “Denver may have 10 wins when we play them, and they didn’t lose anyone from last year. Those are games last year that we won at the last minute.”

Guard Tony Hooper missed most of last season with an injury and leads the Warhawks in scoring at 12.8 ppg. Forwards Lawrence Gilbert and Dynile Forbes are scoring 11.7 ppg.