Sun Belt’s Texas teams too much to handle for Troy

Sports – The Tropolitan Sophomore Filip Mansson and the Trojans shut out UT-Chattanooga on Friday before coming back to beat Jacksonville State on Sunday. (PHOTO/ Troy Athletics)The men's basketball team struggled on the road, dropping road games at UT-Arlington and Texas State. The Trojans now return to Trojan Arena for two conference games that will be broadcast on ESPN3.


Wesley Kirchharr
Staff Writer
The Troy men’s basketball team had a winless weekend road trip to the Lone Star State, as they fell short to both Texas State and conference leader UT-Arlington.
The Trojans (16-14, 8-8 Sun Belt) rode in on a four-game win streak before Texas State escaped with a 63-59 victory and UT-Arlington won convincingly, 82-67.
The Trojans and the Bobcats, neck-and-neck in conference standings, battled it out until the final seconds on Saturday night, ending with a pair of Texas State free throws to seal the deal.
Both teams’ offenses were evenly paced throughout the first half, as the largest lead was an eight-point Trojan advantage. As the first half expired, Ojai Black sunk a three point for the Bobcats to bring them within three as they headed to the locker rooms, 30-27.
Texas State came out of the intermission firing on all cylinders, as it jumped out to a nine-point lead, the largest of the game.
Troy began to chip away at the deficit behind the work of Jordon Varnado. Varnado pitched in 24 points in his 37 minutes of play. The Trojans drew a fair amount of offense from the bench, as Jeremy Hollimon and Wesley Person chipped in 12 and 11 points, respectively.
After a pair of free throws from Hollimon, Troy was right back in the game, only trailing by four with four minutes left to play.
The game continued to be up for grabs even within the final minute. Kevin Baker hit a shot from behind the arc with 17 ...


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