Takeaways from Troy’s 71-62 win over App State

Troy never trailed in its conference home-opener against Appalachian State, taking down the Sun Belt East leading Mountaineers, 71-62, to move to 7-9 and 2-5 in conference play.

The Trojans jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the early moments of the game and kept the Mountaineers behind them the rest of the way.

Head coach Scott Cross is now responsible for two of App State’s three conference losses. Troy took the first game in the series on New Year’s Day.

“This was definitely one of our best performances of the year,” Cross said after the game. “We did it on both sides of the ball. This was the toughest we’ve played all year long.”

Here are our three takeaways from Troy’s conference victory.

Nick Stampley returns to the top of the box score

Stampley enjoyed a five-game stretch where the forward scored in the double figures each time earlier this season but had scored just 13 points total in the three games that followed that stretch.

The senior returned to form on Friday night, though, dropping a career-high 23 points in the win.

Stampley is averaging 19.7 points per game in three meetings with the Mountaineers this season. This time he recorded a double-double, as well, pulling down 12 rebounds to secure his fourth career double-double.

His motivation for the career night not only came from his last performance, a one-point outing at Coastal Carolina, but from how his teammates reacted to his outing.

“After that one-point game a couple of my teammates were making fun of me and I didn’t like that,” Stampley said. “So I got in the gym and then I told myself that I’m going to show them what I’m really capable of. So yes that game did give me an edge and it did get me very upset.”

Trojans step up on defense

Perimeter play hasn’t been pretty for Troy this season on either side of the ball. Before Friday, the Trojans ranked in the 300s in both three-point shooting and three-point defense.

Though Troy shot to form from beyond the arc against the Mountaineers, the Trojans held App State to just 11 percent shooting from deep. Dustin Kearns’ team hit just two such shots in 19 attempts and missed the last five they put up.

“It was a huge area of focus,” Cross said. “We wanted to limit them from shooting any three-point shots, not just making them. Our guys were locked in they did a great job with it.”

App State attempted 12 threes in the second half and watched just one fall.

Troy finishes what it started

For the second time since Sun Belt play began Troy scored at least 20 points in the first 10 minutes of the game. Unlike the first time, Troy finished this one with a win.

The Mountaineers went through numerous two-minute-plus scoring droughts en route to a 33.3 percent shooting performance, the lowest mark App State has hit in conference play.

Offensively, Troy faced its own share of cold streaks but finished strong at the free throw line. The Trojans made each of their last 10 free throw attempts. The last six came from freshman Duke Miles who finished with a season-high 17 points.

The backend of the two-game series tips-off at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday at Trojan Arena.