Women's basketball preps for season opener with exhibition

Troy played AUM in an exhibition game Tuesday night to build hype for the upcoming season. The game resulted in an insane 114-43 victory for the Trojans and got the students fired up. 

"What a night in Trojan Arena," said head coach Chanda Rigby. "We are so appreciative of our fans, especially our sororities and fraternities.  

“It was so fun to open up our new season in Trojan Arena. Our team has shown significant growth from the preseason. Everyone on our team scored, and we executed our defensive schemes. We hope everyone who was here saw a great show and keeps showing up throughout the season." 

Troy was lights out in the game, shooting 60% from the field and 45% from beyond the arc -- even scoring over 30 in multiple quarters.  

The star shooters were Shakirah Edwards, Leilani Guion, and Emani Jenkins, who all buried multiple triples. They all set a mean precedent for the season to come and look more ready than ever to get right back to where they left off last season. 

Despite quite a bit of roster turnover during the offseason, the Trojans look to build on last season’s success. Troy was picked to finish third in the Sun Belt Conference preseason polls. 

There were only five players returning from last year's roster. Along with that, Troy acquired four players in the transfer portal and recruited four true freshmen. Troy did not recruit anyone from junior college for this upcoming season, which is a big deal for head coach Chanda Rigby.  

“As far as the new year, the new team, things are really different,” said Rigby. “For the first time in the history of me being at Troy we didn’t sign a single junior college player.” 

Last season was the fifth year in a row Troy has led the country in rebounding, but the team doesn’t just want to stop there. They’ve started focusing on forcing turnovers and have made that a key point in their practice. 

“Rebounding is king at Troy, and we’ve not changed that, but we’ve added that forcing turnovers is queen,” Rigby said. “We want to lead the league in forced turnovers, so we’ve changed a little bit of the way we play defense.” 

On court performance isn’t the only thing the players have been focusing on. The five returners have made it their mission to bring the team together and build chemistry with one another. 

“It didn’t take us long at all, we immediately clicked,” said senior Zay Dyer, who was selected to the preseason All-Sun Belt First Team. “We go out of our way to do things outside of what’s required for team bonding is what makes us different and special.” 

Along with Dyer, Rachel Leggett and Ashley Baez made preseason All-Sun Belt squads. Leggett was selected to the All-Sun Belt Second Team, while Baez was tabbed for the third team. 

Coach Rigby is very excited about the upcoming season, and she has big goals for this team. Last season, Troy made it to the finals of the WNIT tournament and lost, but Rigby said the objective hasn’t shifted. 

“Our goal is still the same; it is always to win,” said Rigby. 

Troy’s season-opening game against Toledo is a big one -- Troy has yet to win the first SBC-MAC Challenge game of the season and Rigby wants to put an end to the streak. 

“Last season we thought we were ready for Ball State’s press, but we weren’t and we learned from that, but I would like to begin with a win this year,” said Rigby. 

The Trojans open the season on, Monday, Nov. 3 inside Trojan Arena against Toledo. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m., and the game will be on ESPN+.