Sunday reading
December 30, 2007
Bowling Green (Ky.) Daily News: Game story
From me, my gamer isn’t posted on the internet for some reason, but here’s the raw copy. Don’t look for mistakes, just enjoy.
TROY — One thing eluded Troy in the second half of Saturday’s game against Western Kentucky.
The lead.
Had the Trojans been able to take a lead after fighting back from 13 down, Saturday’s game might have gone another way.
Instead, Western Kentucky took a 94-90 win from Troy at Trojan Arena.
It was Troy’s second straight loss after five wins in a row. WKU improved to 9-4, 1-0 in league play. Troy is 6-6, 0-2.
The Trojans were down 78-65 after a 3-pointer from WKU’s Ty Rogers, but O’Darien Bassett hit four straight 3-pointers on a 12-4 run to cut the lead to five with 8:45 left.
The lead was either four or five for most of the next seven minutes. Bassett, who scored a career-high 36, drove to the basket to tie it at 86 with 1:50 left.
WKU’s Courtney Lee then scored the last eight points of the game. He answered with a drive of his own, and Bassett again answered him to tie it, but Lee’s floater with 40 seconds left gave WKU a 90-88 lead. Bassett had a shot partially deflected by Lee, and Lee hit four free throws late to ice it.
“In the second half, momentum changed a couple of times and went our way,” Troy head coach Don Maestri said. “We didn’t play great. To beat good teams like this, our whole group is going to have to play really good.”
Lee spent much of the second half in foul trouble and finished with 17 points, four below his season average.
The story of the game early was WKU point guard Tyrone Brazelton, who hit eight 3-pointers in the first half. His ninth, just minutes into the second half, set a school record. He finished with 29 points.
Two of his 3-pointers early helped WKU race out to an 8-0 lead. Two more helped WKU go on a 17-2 run to erase a 34-29 deficit. The Hilltoppers led 56-48 at halftime.
“Maybe we would have gotten points another way,” WKU coach Darrin Horn said. “But the bottom line is he made an awful lot of shots in the first half all within the offense. None of them were forced.”
After falling 8-0, Troy didn’t panic. Down 29-24, the Trojans scored 10 straight before WKU called timeout to set up its big run.
“We don’t get down on ourselves when we get down eight or 10 points, because our system (run and gun) is going to keep us in it,” Bassett said.
Bassett was Troy’s only double-digit scorer. A.J. Slaughter scored 13 for WKU and Ty Rogers added 12 points. Jeremy Evans had 13 rebounds, though WKU only outrebounded Troy by five.
The HIlltoppers did score 27 points off turnovers.
Troy hosts North Texas Thursday at 7 p.m.
