Coming off a game where Troy played a “terrible floor game” and “bad basketball,” the Trojans will close out Sartain Hall against Arkansas-Little Rock, one of the Sun Belt’s best teams, at 7:30 p.m. tonight.
Troy lost 83-59 at Arkansas State on Thursdsay, the fifth-place team in the Sun Belt West, to drop to 8-16, 3-10 in conference play. It was the second-worst loss of the season for the East Division last-place Trojans, and worst in Sun Belt play.
“We just played a terrible floor game,” Troy head coach Don Maestri said. “We had five or six turnovers in the first half when the game was close, unforced turnovers, stepping out of bounds on a back cut, traveling when there was no one near us. It was bad basketball.”
Troy trailed by just nine at halftime, but ASU made 8-of-14 3-pointers in the second half.
“They hadn’t been playing well, but when they got hot, they started hitting threes like they were at the carnival,” Maestri said.
It gets much tougher today, as UALR is trying to hold off three other teams and win the Sun Belt West. UALR started off slow, but is now 13-14 overall, 10-3 in Sun Belt play.
Senior point guard D’Andre Williams, who Maestri calls a viable Player of the Year candidate, is scoring 17 points per game over his last seven games. Troy will have a matchup problem with 6-foot-10 sophomore Will Neighbour (11.2 ppg), as he shoots from inside and out.
UALR’s frontcourt of Michael Javes (6-foot-10, 230) and Courtney Jackson (6-foot-6, 225) will also be a challenge, but UALR makes its mark on defense. Those Trojans are third in the league in scoring defense (63.9 ppg allowed), while Troy is last (75.4 ppg allowed).
Maestri said he hasn’t stressed to his players about tonight’s game being the final one at Sartain Hall, but said he would mention it at practice. Troy is 468-180 in the building, which opened in 1962 and will soon be converted into a recreational facility.
Troy’s new Trojan Arena opens next season, Nov. 9 against Mississippi State.
“We’ll mention it so they’ll know they’ll have a good crowd on hand,” Maestri said. “We don’t want to overemphasize it because their job is to get ready for Little Rock.”
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