MILWAUKEE – The Troy Trojans had designs on becoming the latest Cinderella to eliminate the vaunted Kentucky Wildcats in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
And while they gave it their best shot, in the end their opponent was simply too big, too athletic and too good as 14th-seeded Troy fell, 76-57, in the teams’ Friday night matchup at Fiserv Forum.
Marcus Rigsby Jr. scored 17 points and star senior Tayton Conerway finished with 12 points, four rebounds and four assists for the Trojans, who were making just their third NCAA Tournament appearance and first since 2017.
Troy (23-11) shot 34.9% and hit only 5 of 9 free throws. The team also finished with 10 steals – one final strong performance in the takeaway department – but generated only 12 points off those turnovers.
Otega Oweh scored a game-high 20 to lead four players in double figures for the third-seeded Wildcats (23-11), NCAA Tournament royalty who were playing in their record 186th game in the Big Dance.
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The Trojans trailed by only eight at halftime but fell victim to a barrage of three-pointers in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
BOX SCORE:Kentucky 76, Troy 57
Two came on the Wildcats’ opening two possessions, and three more followed in a span of just 2 1/2 minutes as Kentucky used a 14-0 run to turn a 45-39 game into a 59-39 rout.
Freshman Collin Chandler sandwiched two of those treys around the three free throws he buried after being fouled on another attempt in front of Kentucky’s bench with the Wildcats’ size, athleticism and depth clearly wearing down the smaller Trojans.
The deficit grew to 22 with 8 minutes 4 seconds left, but the Trojans fought back. A 9-0 run sparked by seven points from Rigsby made it 61-48 and got the neutral portion of the Milwaukee crowd back into it a bit.
But then just as quickly, Kentucky responded with a lightning-quick run of 7-0 that opened the deficit back up to 20 for Troy and forced coach Scott Cross to burn a timeout to keep things from getting completely out of hand.
Troy played its typical hard-nosed style in the first half and trailed, 35-27, heading to intermission.
The Trojans racked up five steals and tied the much bigger Wildcats on the boards at 19-all – including a 3-0 advantage on the offensive end – but shot only 33.3% (11 for 33) and 25% from beyond the arc 4 for 16).
Troy pulled even with Kentucky (23-11) on Jerrell Bellamy’s layup with 7:37 left in the first half and remained within a basket until consecutive three-pointers by Trent Noah and Andrew Carr put a little space between the two teams.
Dunks by Amari Williams and Koby Brea on Kentucky’s next two possessions made it a 10-0 run to put the Trojans behind by double digits for the first time on the night at 35-24, then Jackson Fields buried a three from the left wing with 49.3 seconds left on the clock to cap the first-half scoring.
