Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

After starting the 2024-2025 women’s basketball season off with eight straight road games, the Troy Trojans (4-5) finally made their season debut at Trojan Arena on Wednesday night with a resounding 109-47 win over the Oakwood Ambassadors (1-5).

Troy started the season off with eight consecutive road games against the likes of Buffalo, Alabama, Montana State, UT-Chattanooga, LSU, Alaska-Anchorage, North Dakota State and Mississippi Valley State.

Wednesday’s return home for Troy was a cathartic one as the Trojans dominated from start to finish with six different players scoring 10 or more points. The 109 points is the 37th time Troy has scored more than 100 in head coach Chanda Rigby’s career.

After jumping out to a 32-13 lead in the first quarter, the Trojans extended that to 61-26 at halftime. Troy also outscored Oakwood 48-21 in the second half. The Trojans shot 45.6 percent from the field, while holding the Ambassadors to just 29.8 percent shooting. Troy also dominated the boards, outrebounding Oakwood 64-30 along with the Trojans forcing an eye-popping 36 turnovers. Troy scored 46 points off turnovers, compared to just five points scored off turnovers for Oakwood. The Trojans also outscored Oakwood 60-12 in the paint.

“The Sound of the South and all the fans were there for us. It was Education Day, so there were a lot of young fans, and we hope they grow up to be Trojan fans,” Rigby said. “They were really loud for us. It’s just good to be back, and we’re blessed to have all those things in Trojan Arena. We’re still trying to pull together a team with nine new players, so even though we were winning by a lot at the beginning of the game, we’re still not doing a lot of things right.

“A lot of our players were not playing the way that they can play. We talked about it at halftime, and in the second half, the players came out and played the way we know they can. Emani Jenkins is a shooter, and Stitch is a shooter. They came out, and both had at least two 3-pointers in the second half. That comes with not feeling so forced to get them. We have ten solid days to get better as a staff and squad so that Memphis can’t even recognize us when we come out to play the next game because we’re so much better.”

Zay Dyer earned a double-double for Troy with 14 points and 10 rebounds along with four steals and four assists, while Brianna Jackson tallied 14 points, nine rebounds and a block. Leilani Guion scored 13 points with six rebounds. Ashley Baez chipped in with 11 points and three assists, while Adriana Jones earned 11 points. Emani Jenkins also scored 10 points in the win. Briana Peguero scored nine points and grabbed five steals on defense. Fortuna Ngnawo also filled up the stat sheet with nine points, 10 rebounds and four steals. Both Shaulana Wagner and Khila Morris dished five assists each.

For Oakwood, Saniya Keys scored 13 points, while Dekezia Moore tallied 12 points and two steals.

Troy is back at home next Saturday, Dec. 14, for a matchup with Memphis at 2 p.m.