Guard Crislyn Rose works her way around the defense to find an open look. Rose ended the game with 12 points and 8 rebounds.

In a top-three Sun Belt Conference clash, the Arkansas State women’s basketball team lost a close one at home against the Troy Trojans 61-54.

The gravity of this game was not lost on the Red Wolves, as it held implications for seeding in the SBC tournament. Even still, the team came out looking dysfunctional, finding itself in a 20-12 hole at the end of the first quarter.

This was in part due to the defense played by the Trojans. The visitors poked holes in the A-State offense by cooling the hot hands from Saturday’s win against Louisiana, where they made a program record 19 three pointers against a Division I opponent. 

Open looks were far and few for the home team from beyond the arc and the interior was even less inviting for layups. Head Coach Destinee Rogers gave her kudos to the opposing defense in her post-game remarks.

“They always do a great job of covering our shooters,” Rogers said.

Even when the defense gave them up, open shots from the Red Wolves avoided the basket like a plague, with plenty of rim-outs and wide misses making up the attempts in the team’s 29% field goal percentage. It was a shocking turn of events from the record-breaking day in Louisiana this past weekend.

“If you would have told me we were only going to score 54 points today, I would have told you that you were crazy as hell,” Rogers said.

The other glaring disadvantage was the Red Wolves’ work on the glass. At halftime, the Trojans had over double the amount of rebounds that A-State nabbed, and that deficit continued to grow until it reached a 64-32 gap at the final buzzer. 

Trojan forwards Fortuna Ngnawo and Zay Dyer took full advantage of the weak A-State interior to get themselves a double-double, both grabbing over 15 rebounds each. 

Despite the 20 offensive rebounds that Troy grabbed, A-State was able to keep them from capitalizing on their failures at boxing out, only giving up six second chance points on defense. 

While the shooting from A-State looked off, their pressure on ball handlers stayed on point as usual. The Red Wolves continued their full court pressure tactics and clogged passing lanes to force 30 turnovers from the visitors. 

This volume of opportunities turned out to be a blessing for A-State’s struggling offense, leading to 24 points off turnovers. 

This defense chipped away at the Trojans’ energy as the game went on, only allowing 24 points in the second half compared to 37 in the first. The work paid off as it allowed the stagnant A-State offense to crawl its way back to tie the game at 50-50 with 4:19 left in the game. 

Guards Mia Tarver, Zyion Shannon, and Crislyn Rose combined for 21 of the 28 second half points to help put the game back within reach. However, another scoring drought that lasted through the final two minutes of the game sealed the deal and allowed the Trojans to pull away with the win. 

Despite the dampened spirits following a close loss, the team is moving forward toward the last game of the season against Texas State, hoping to increase its chances at a top seed and bye in the Sun Belt tournament next week. 

“We’ve got to take care of business on Friday,” Rogers said. “Just hope like hell we don’t drop below four.”

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