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The Troy Trojans (12-7, 6-1) women’s basketball team extended their winning streak to six with an 81-73 win over the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns (8-8, 4-3) on Jan. 18. 

The Trojans are also 6-0 in Trojan Arena this season, the fourth time Troy has had that sort of start under head coach Chanda Rigby. Despite trailing 21-13 going into the second quarter, Troy rallied to take a 36-35 lead into halftime. Troy then extended that lead to 57-44 going into the fourth. In the final period, Louisiana managed to outscore Troy 29-24 but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Trojans held on for a sixth straight conference win.

“It was a great night at Trojan Arena. The players had a very hard-fought win. We got off to a kind of slow start, and a lot of it had to do with how good (Louisiana) is; they’re a very good team,” Rigby said. “We had people come off the bench, like Fortuna (Ngnawa), who really came in and made an impact quickly, stayed in control and did her job. We had good guard play again. 

“A lot of players contributed a lot. We started doing better in the second half, which swayed things a bit. A goal of ours was to force more turnovers than we committed, and it was dead even. So, we’re getting better. From here on out we’re going to always make other teams force more turnovers. I’m just proud of everyone in the organization. We’re playing better defense than probably since I’ve been here at Troy. We’ve got to be ready for Texas State next; it never ends.”

The nation’s leaders in rebounding dominated the boards once again, out-rebounding Louisiana 46-30 and also outscored the Cajuns 18-8 in second chance points. Troy’s bench also outscored Louisiana’s 31-17 and while both teams turned the ball over 17 times each, Troy managed to score 21 points off those turnovers compared to the Cajuns’ 13.

Troy had a total of five players score in double figures with Fortuna Ngnawa earning a double-double with 13 points, 12 rebounds and one block. Briana Peguero scored a team-high 16 points with seven rebounds, six assists and two steals, while Brianna Jackson tallied 11 points, four rebounds and two steals. Emani Jenkins chipped in with 10 points. 

Troy now starts as four-game road trip on Jan. 23 at Texas State at 11 a.m.