Troy men’s basketball holds off Southern Miss, heads to Sun Belt tournament title game

Troy is one victory away from a second straight Sun Belt Conference men’s basketball double championship.

The top-seeded Trojans held off Southern Miss 78-70 in Sunday’s Sun Belt tournament semifinals, advancing to Monday’s championship game vs. No. 10 seed Georgia Southern. Troy (21-11) won the conference regular-season title outright this season after sharing the regular-season crown and then winning the tournament to advance to the NCAA tournament a year ago.

“I think we were just super connected,” Troy coach Scott Cross said. “You could see kind of a ‘grit’ in their eyes. You can almost see it in their eyes whether they’re ready to play, whether they’re going to do whatever it takes. … I’m proud of them.

“Again, all these teams in the Sun Belt are all very, very evenly matched. … There’s not much difference. There’s so much parity in this league. That’s why, I guess, they call it the ‘Fun Belt.’”

Troy led comfortably for much of the game, including 41-28 at halftime and 70-55 with a little more than four minutes to play. However, a rough second half offensively caught up with the Trojans, who went more than 10 minutes without a field goal at one stretch and had to rely on free-throw shooting late to pull out the victory.

Southern Miss (19-16) got within 74-70 with 12 seconds left, but Troy’s Cooper Campbell sank two free throws shortly thereafter to make it a 6-point game again. Kerrington Kiel stole the ball away on the Golden Eagles’ next possession and made one of two from the line to secure the eight-point win.

“The most important stat is the final score, and our guys did enough to get it done,” Cross said. “Credit to Southern Miss, how many games they’ve played and how many days. I mean, that’s not easy to do. I know our guys are fatigued from one game, and I can’t imagine, playing four games back-to-back-to-back. But they didn’t quit. They gave us a run down the stretch, made it interesting.”

Jerrell Bellamy — starting once again in place of the injured Theo Seng — led Troy with 22 points, 16 in the first half. Campbell added 14, Victor Valdes 13 and Thomas Dowd 12 for the Trojans, who shot just 33% from the field in the second half after making 54% of their attempts during the first 20 minutes.

The Trojans were 31-for-38 from the free-throw line, with Dowd going 10-for-12, Campbell 7-for-8 and Valdes 7-for-9. Troy had a slight overall rebounding edge at 39-38, though the Golden Eagles had 19 offensive boards.

“They were getting to the foul line and they got into the bonus and the double bonus really early in the second half,” Southern Miss coach Jay Ladner said. “We have a teaching term that we say ‘don’t foul,’ but also ‘don’t appear to foul.’ And I thought when we got down 12 or so, we kind of panicked a little bit on defense and we started trying to pressure and over pressure and gamble too much on defense. I like the competitive spirit of that, and again, I’ll take responsibility. It’s my responsibility to instill discipline in your players and fundamentals. And I thought we kind of let the moment get to us a little bit, and that was a little bit disappointing.”

Southern Miss got a career-high 32 points from guard Isaac Taveras, who also led the team with nine rebounds and four steals. However, All-Sun Belt forward Tylik Weeks, the league’s leading scorer, had his first off-night offensively in roughly a month.

Weeks had scored 28, 32 and 31 in the Golden Eagles’ previous three tournament games, but managed only 15 on Sunday. He shot 6-for-18 from the field and played much of the second half in foul trouble.

“The film that we watched yesterday, just being familiar with Weeks’ games and Weeks’ game and a lot of his tendencies and just really emphasizing being in the gaps on him,” Dowd said. “Some tendencies he has, like spinning back when he drives a certain way. So I think just everyone on defense was really locked in and connected, and obviously he’s the focal point since he’s had like three 30 point games in a row.”

Troy played its fifth consecutive game without Seng, who averages 12.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Cross said Seng has responded well to treatment on his injured knee, and he is hopeful the 6-foot-9 senior would be available should the Trojans advance to a postseason tournament.

Troy also won the Sun Belt tournament a year ago, reaching the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017. The Trojans lost to Kentucky in the opening round of March Madness in Milwaukee to finish 23-11.

Georgia Southern (21-15) beat No. 2 seed Marshall 82-78 in Sunday’s other semifinal. The Eagles have won five tournament games in five days to reach Monday’s championship, which airs live at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.

©2026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit DAMAKORONKOWA. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Location:

Share :