PENSACOLA, Fla. – Top-seeded Troy dodged the upset bullet for the second straight day Sunday afternoon at the Pensacola Bay Center, holding off a determined Appalachian State squad, 66-63, in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference Women's Basketball Championship.
"When we first meet at the start of the season, we talk about what it's going to take to get to the tournament championship game," said Troy head coach Chanda Rigby. "All of the losses, the ugly games that you have, you learn from them and make yourself a better team. The tournament only lasts about five days and you spend the other 360 days of the year doing the work to get you ready for the tournament.
Troy (21-5), now riding a 10-game winning streak, will take on either Louisiana (16-6) in the tournament championship game Monday at 1 p.m. at the Pensacola Bay Center. The game will be broadcast on ESPNU. The matchup is a rematch of the 2017 Sun Belt championship game and will be Troy's third championship final appearance in the last five championship games.
"After playing (Appalachian State) for the fifth time, I'm looking forward to playing someone new," Rigby said. "I don't think the other side of the bracket has had to adjust to our pace and style of play, and I think that's a good thing. However, it's the same for us not having played them, either."
Appalachian State (15-12) - which had a five-game winning streak stopped and was playing its third game in as many days - had two shots to tie the game in the dying moments, but both 3-pointers were off the mark, allowing the Trojans to escape and advance to the title game.
"I'm proud of this group and the way they executed our gameplan," said Appalachian State head coach Angel Elderkin. "We did what we set out to do. We were in a position to send the game into overtime and I really thought we did everything we could do to win the game."
The end of Sunday's game bore little resemblance to the start, as Appalachian State missed its first 12 shots from the field and Troy raced out to a 13-0 lead in the opening 5:01 before Michaela Porter made a jumper to get the Mountaineers on the board. Appalachian State then put together an 11-2 burst of its own to close to within 19-16 later in the quarter, but Troy scored eight of the final 10 points of the period to hold a 27-18 lead after the first 10 minutes.
The Trojans made 11 of their 17 first-quarter shots (64.7 percent), including a sizzling 5-of-6 (83.3 percent) from 3-point range. Alexus Dye had eight points and four rebounds and Tiyah Johnson had eight points and two assists for Troy. Meanwhile, Appalachian State went just 5-for-20 (25.0 percent) overall and 1-for-3 (33.3 percent) from the 3-point arc. The Mountaineers kept somewhat close by draining all seven of their free-throw attempts and by getting nine points and three rebounds from Pre Stanley along with five points and six rebounds from Lainey Gosnell.
Stanley put the Mountaineers on her back in the second quarter, scoring 12 points and grabbing three more rebounds, to help Appalachian State outscore Troy, 20-11, in the period and send the game into halftime tied at 38. Stanley had 21 points on 7-of-16 shooting (3-for-5 on threes) and six rebounds in the first half. Troy cooled off in the second quarter, only hitting four of its 15 shots (26.7 percent), and Dye led the Trojans with 12 points and eight rebounds at the break.
Troy took the lead early in the third quarter and slowly extended its advantage, making a 10-3 run over the final 2:05 of the period to take a 62-52 lead into the final 10 minutes.
In the fourth quarter, Appalachian State went 3:42 without scoring, but the Trojans were only able to add four points to their lead due to some cold shooting. Stanley's jumper with 3:20 to go, which cut Troy's lead to 66-58, got the Mountaineer offense going and Appalachian State got a pair of free throws by Stanley and a 3-pointer by Porter to close to within 66-63 with 45 seconds remaining.
After a timeout, Troy missed a shot and Appalachian State grabbed the rebound. The Mountaineers took their first shot to tie the game and it was off the mark, but Gosnell grabbed the rebound and Appalachian State called timeout to draw up the final play. After the timeout, the Mountaineers were able to get another tying shot off before the buzzer, but it, too, was off the mark and Troy escaped with the hard-fought victory.
"It's hard to play a team five times in a season, especially with the way we play," said Rigby, whose team won despite going the final 3:52 without scoring. "Appalachian State did a good job of slowing us down. When you play the same team so many times, they're not going to keep letting you do the same things you always do. We're just thankful to get out of here with a win."
Dye led four double-digit scorers for Troy with a double-double of 20 points and 13 rebounds. Felmas Koranga had 10 points and six rebounds, Jasmine Robinson had 10 points and three assists, Johnson pitched in 10 points, six rebounds and three assists and Janiah Sandifer did a little bit of everything for the Trojans with five points, six rebounds and three assists.
Stanley led Appalachian State with a game-high 29 points and 14 rebounds. Janay Sanders had 13 points and three rebounds, Porter finished with 10 points and three steals and Gosnell battled her way to seven points, 12 rebounds and four steals in the loss.