Recap | Final Stats | Notes

Troy (7-9, 1-2 Sun Belt) 76 at UTA (10-6, 1-2 Sun Belt) 86
Thursday, January 4, 2018
College Park Center - Arlington, Texas

POSTGAME QUOTES

UTA Head Coach Scott Cross
"I was very, very pleased with the way our guys played. From the tip, they played with intensity. I felt lie our guys were determined to win this basketball game. You could see it in the way they played defense. It was nice that the lid finally came off the goal and we started knocking down some shots. That helped our guys confidence tremendously. That was great to see.

"Troy was a team that scared me. They are one of the best scoring teams in the Sun Belt Conference. They pose a big challenge. For some reason, we always have trouble with them. I felt like our guys did a pretty good job defensively. We held them to 40 percent (shooting) and 39 from the 3-point line. Overall, I was pleased with our defensive performance.

"Kaelon (Wilson) might have been the most important piece. I think Erick (Neal) as well. The way he set the tone defensively. When the game changed in the first half. They were beating us by nine or 10 points in the first half and we got a couple of offensive rebounds and scored. Kaelon was a big part of that. For him to have 10 rebounds, four of them offensive.. I've been waiting for that to happen. I feel like he is such a weapon when does crash the offensive boards. Two years ago, when we led the country in rebounding, we could take a bad shot. But, it wasn't as bad because of the guys we had rebounding. Now, a bad shot isn't quite as bad. That makes things easier offensively.

"Wesley Person is a top five 3-point shooter in the country. Last year, he had 10 threes against us at their place. You can't give him an inch of space. Erick came to me a couple of days ago and said he wanted the challenge of guarding him. When Erick was on him, he didn't score hardly. Erick did a tremendous job of guarding. That is a task, guarding that guy. (Jordon) Varnado is such a threat down low. He can post you up, hit the 15 footer or take you off the dribble. They are a very good offensive executing basketball team."