Trojans set for Sun Belt Tournament

After an up-and-down men's season and a historic women's season, both Troy basketball teams have secured top two seeds in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament. 

For the men, the Trojans held the lead in the Sun Belt for almost the entire year. However, after a losing five of seven conference games late in the season, Troy slipped as far down as third in the standings. 

A win against Louisiana put the Trojans in a four-way tie at the top of the Sun Belt heading into last Friday’s game. All Troy needed to do to guarantee itself a repeat of last year's regular-season title was win against ULM in Trojan Arena, which it accomplished in dominant fashion, 80-65. 

For the Trojans to win the title outright, they would have needed Appalachian State, Marshall and South Alabama to lose in their Friday games. The impossible became possible, and Troy won its first-ever outright Sun Belt Regular Season Championship and locked in the number one seed for the Sun Belt Tournament ahead of a six-way tie for second. 

“I’m just super thankful and grateful to win a championship,” said head coach Scott Cross after the Trojans’ win over ULM. “All wins are very difficult, and winning a championship is tough.  

“You never want to take that for granted.” 

Troy now waits until Sunday to take the court in Pensacola, Florida, a benefit of the number one status. 

On the women’s side, the Trojans battled all season long with Georgia Southern for the top spot in the Sun Belt. Evenly matched all season long, Troy needed to beat South Alabama to take a share of the Sun Belt regular season title, but a win and a Georgia Southern loss would give them outright control of the conference. 

The Trojans couldn’t get it done in Mobile, Alabama, as the Jaguars took them down 76-69.

Worse for Troy, Georgia Southern won against Marshall in overtime to take the outright Sun Belt Regular-Season Championship. 

Despite that, the Trojans had a large enough lead over Arkansas State and James Madison to guarantee themselves the two seed in the Sun Belt Tournament. Head coach Chanda Rigby said her team needs to take the loss to South Alabama and learn from it so it can take the tournament victory. 

“We know we’re the No. 2 seed, so we have to choose to take tonight as a lesson and be ready to beat two teams and go for a championship,” Rigby said after the loss. “We just need to learn from tonight and use it.  

“We’re going to rest and get ready for our run.” 

Thankfully for the women’s squad, it too will wait until Sunday to play its first game of the Sun Belt Tournament. 

Both teams have realistic shots to make their respective NCAA Tournaments with a Sun Belt Tournament victory and could also find an alternate postseason bid should either fail to make the tournament. The women take to Pensacola, Florida, first at 2 p.m. Sunday, while the men will follow them up at 5 p.m.