by TROY, Alabama – The Troy women’s basketball team faces its toughest test of the season on Thursday as the Trojans take their high-powered offense to Vanderbilt. The Trojans and Commodores will tip at 7 p.m. inside Memorial Gym in a game that will air on ESPN3.com as part of the SEC Network Plus.
Links to that broadcast, live stats and free live audio can be found at TroyTrojans.com. For live in-game updates on Twitter, follow @TroyTrojansWBB.
Troy (3-2) has not played in over a week since a 104-51 win over Nicholls last Tuesday at Trojan Arena. Troy is 3-0 at home this season, but 0-2 on the road with close losses to Samford and Belmont, who are a combined 13-4 on the season.
The Trojans come into Memorial Gym with the nation’s top scoring offense at 97.4 points per game, over 7.0 points more than second place UConn (90.2). Troy, in its fourth season under head coach Chanda Rigby, has led the Sun Belt in scoring in every season under Rigby.
However, it’s Troy’s defense that made headlines in the win over Nicholls. The Trojans held the Colonels to 25 percent shooting and forced them into 35 turnovers. Troy is forcing opponents into an average of 26.8 turnovers per game and grabbing 14.0 steals per game, both marks that rank second in the NCAA.
Individually, Ashley Beverly Kelley leads the Trojans in scoring at 21.0 points per game, tops in the Sun Belt and 19th best in the NCAA. The senior Mid-Major All-American has scored in double figures in every game this season and in 19 straight dating back to last season.
Beverly Kelley is second in the Sun Belt in assists and assist-turnover ratio, behind only her teammate, Amanda Mendoza. The sophomore is averaging 6.6 assists and has a 4.1 assist-turnover ratio, good for 14th and sixth in the NCAA, respectively.
Junior forward Caitlyn Ramirez (Seminole Nation of Oklahoma) is Troy’s second leading scorer at 14.4 points per game. She enters Thursday’s game as the NCAA’s leader in field goal percentage at 69.0 percent on the season.
Vanderbilt (7-2) comes into Thursday’s game having won six straight games, including a 65-39 win at home over ETSU on Saturday. The Commodores only two losses of the season came on the road against quality mid-major teams in Dayton and Green Bay. Vanderbilt is 6-0 at Memorial Gym this season.
Vanderbilt has one of the top-20 scoring defenses in the nation, holding opponents to 51.4 per game. Outside of Dayton (81), the Commodores have held every opponent under 60 points this season.
Troy is 0-2 all-time against Vanderbilt, but hasn’t played the Commodores since 2005.
