NEW ORLEANS, La. (3/11/16) – Arkansas State's run in the Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament came to an end Friday morning with a 96-89 loss to Troy in the semifinals.
Aundrea Gamble scored a game-high 26 points and dished out eight assists in the effort, while Brittney Gill added a career-high 22 points. Khadija Brown-Haywood collected her 13th double-double of the season with 18 points and 10 rebounds.
“All the credit goes to Troy, they just played a phenomenal game,” A-State head coach Brian Boyer said. “One of those games where they were just in attack mode the whole game. The entire game, they just hit shot after big shot and when they did miss it seemed like they would get the offensive rebound. Sometimes it just comes down to it was just their day.”
A-State (26-5) held a 44-40 lead at halftime, but Troy (19-12) outscored the Red Wolves 32-15 in the third quarter to thanks to a hot shooting had. The Trojans shot 54.9 percent from the field in the frame and went by 18 when Amanda Mendoza drained a 3-pointer to go up 54-72 with 1:43 to go in the period.
The 18 point deficit was the largest that A-State had faced all season, but A-State continued to battle and cut the lead to 74-65 with 8:18 to go in the game after a bucket by Gill. The Trojans pushed the margin back to 14 with 6:38 to go in the game, but the Red Wolves had a final push left.
Arkansas State slowly whittled the lead down to 91-85 with 1:13 to go in the game. After a missed 3-point attempt by Troy, Gill drove to the hoops for a layup and drew a foul to pull within 91-87 with 31 seconds to go. Gill missed the free throw however, and Troy controlled the rebound and made 5-of-6 free throws in the final 30 seconds to secure the win.
“We eventually went zone in the second quarter to break the rhythm and slow them down,” Boyer said. “It worked, and honestly, our third quarters have been so good this year. Today it wasn't. We came out and started out in zone and they hit some threes, we switched to man and that didn't work, and by that time they had enough energy going that it didn't matter what we switched to, it had no effect on them whatsoever. They hit shots regardless.”
Troy led 32-23 with 44:5 seconds to go in the first quarter, but A-State scored five straight, including a buzzer beating 3-pointer by Jessica Flanery to get within 32-28.
The run, which went to 11-0, extended into the second quarter and was powered by Gill who tied a career-high with 14 points in the half. The Pine Bluff, Ark., native was 6-of-11 from the field and knocked down a pair of free throws to lead the Red Wolves in scoring in the half.
Troy scored its first points of the quarter to tie the game at 34-34, but A-State responded with a 6-0 run to push its lead to 40-34. Troy had just two points in the quarter with 5:32 to go, but Arkansas State finished the half just 1-for-11 from the field and went without basket in the final 4:07 of half.
Troy also struggled in the closing minutes of the half and was just of 1-of-7 as both teams played nearly a full eight minutes without a stoppage due to an early timeout by Troy that became the media timeout.
A-State will have to wait for its postseason plans until Monday, March 14 when the NCAA Selection airs at 6 p.m. on ESPN. Should the Red Wolves not receive an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament, the team has already secured a berth in the WNIT (Women's National Invitation Tournament) by virtue of their regular season championship.
The WNIT bracket will be released between 10-11 p.m. Monday evening after the NCAA bracket is released.
For the latest on the A-State women's basketball follow the team log onto the team's Facebook page at Facebook.com/RedWolvesWBB, follow them on Twitter @AStateWB and on Instagram at “AStateWBB.”
