Keepin’ It 100: Troy’s Women’s Basketball’s History of 100-Point Games

Much like the rest of Trojan Nation, I love high-scoring basketball games, especially when Troy is doing the scoring. After attending the Women’s game against App State in the closing days of the 2023-24 season, I was enthralled watching Coach Chanda Rigby’s Trojans operating at such a high level.

The relentless passing. The drive to the basket. The dominant defense.

Many things have been written about the high-scoring efforts of the Men’s team, but it is time to recognize the achievements of Trojan Arena’s female occupants.

The Women of Troy didn’t have their first recognized season until the 1975-76 year. This was shortly after the passage of Title IX, which led to the full creation of the women’s side of Troy Athletics.

However, this was not technically the first year of women’s basketball in The Wiregrass. The earliest record we have of Women’s basketball dates back to Troy’s first Palladium in 1912.

Unfortunately, Troy doesn’t recognize any women’s basketball teams until the 75-76 year, so we will start there.

Troy’s first coach Joyce Sorrell had to start the program from scratch and did so with a modicum success. During her time as coach, Troy won one Alabama Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women Championship (1980-81) and won 20 games or more twice (1978-79 & 1991-92).

But we are here for 100-point games. How many times did Troy score 100 or more in her tenure?

In Sorrell’s 20 seasons leading Troy, her teams broke into triple digits 19 times, from the 1976-1977 season until the 1994-1995 season.

Sorrell’s Trojan Women would lose only one 100-point game, a 110-107 home affair vs Jax State.

The biggest win was a 68-point outstripping of Northwest Florida State Raiders. This was also just the second 100-point game in Troy Women’s history, setting the program scoring record with 120 points.

The record stood until January 23, 1995 when, in Sorrell’s last 100-point game, the Trojan Women beat Chicago State 124-78.

Sorrell retired from Troy after the 1995 season, making way for Jerry Hester, the interim coach and former men’s assistant coach. His second season, 1996-97, proved to be Hester’s most effective.

The Trojans finished 23-7, winning the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament and getting Troy women their first bid to the NCAA Tournament. They would eventually fall to #12 ranked Virginia in the first round.

The 1996-97 story is a big part of understanding Troy’s 100 point game history. Outside of Sorrell and Rigby, Hester is the only other Trojan coach to have a squad hit 100 in a game.

His team was able to do it twice… in the 1996-97 season.

Troy won an away game against New Orleans 103-85 on December 7, 1996. Little more than a month later, the women beat Chicago State, 113-58.

From there, Troy women began a 100-point drought. After the January 20th game, Troy women wouldn’t break the century mark again under Hester or his replacement, Michael Murphy.

Almost 16 years later, a new coach ushered in a new era of Troy dominance… and her name was Chanda Rigby.

If you ask any Trojan fan worth their salt to name the greatest head coaches ever employed by the University, Chanda Rigby’s name will be on that list. By almost every metric, Coach Rigby is the greatest coach in Troy’s short history of women’s basketball.

She has the second longest tenure at Troy, second most wins, highest winning percentage, most conference championships, and has put Troy in contention to win the Sun Belt almost every season she’s spent in the Wiregrass.

But what about 100 point games?

Prior to Coach Rigby, Troy had scored 100 or more points 21 times from 1975-2012. They were a solid 20-1. Since her hiring for the 2012-13 season, Chanda Rigby has coached in 34 100-point games, only losing three.

She made it possible by creating a system where players focus heavily on rebounding and passing to ensure they have possession and can take the best shots.

This created a style of basketball that makes women’s games a “Must-See” affair in Trojan Arena. To date, Troy has only hosted two postseason basketball games: both were played by Rigby’s Trojan Women.

What’s more is that these high-scoring games have been exciting. Take the three losses for instance:

• Two of them, Alabama and Tulane, went into overtime or farther. Troy only lost by 8 and 3 points respectively.
• The outlier was the Coastal Carolina loss, which was a 21 point loss. The 15-3 Chanticleers were the No. 2 team in the conference, however, losing the regular season title to Troy in the last week of the season.

On the other hand, the wins have been electric too. In 1995, the Troy scoring mark was set at 124. Coach Rigby’s teams have broken that record twice.

The first was the 80-point victory over Montevallo on Dec. 9, 2017. The Trojans destroyed the Falcons 130-50.

The achievement stood for nearly three full years until the Trojans dropped 131 against LaGrange College, which set the current program record.

When all is said and done, Chanda Rigby will be the most celebrated Troy women’s basketball coach, if she is not already.

That said, I believe her ability to motivate her teams and score 100 or more will make that record nearly impossible to break for future Trojan head coaches.