The University of Denver men’s basketball team continues to struggle on the road with an overtime loss, 76-72, to Troy University over the weekend in Alabama.
The Pioneers (9-12, 4-6 SBC) have yet to win a road game this season, and Saturday’s game against Troy (13-10, 8-3 SBC) extended their streak to six road losses.
“Troy is playing the best game in the league. When we started this five game stretch with Western Kentucky, South Alabama, Troy, Middle Tennessee and Arkansas-Little Rock, historically four of the best teams in the league, I felt this was the right time for us to be playing these games,” said head coach Joe Scott. “I liked how our guys were getting better, growing and developing.”
Despite being narrowly defeated by the Trojans, junior forward Nate Rohnert had a double-double with 24 points and 11 rebounds. Sophomore forward Rob Lewis and redshirt freshman Andrew Hooper also contributed to Denver’s final score, with 21 and 18 points, respectively.
The only other two Denver players to score were freshman guard Brian Stafford with six points and sophomore Nigel Peter-Denman with three points.
Rohnert hit three free throws in overtime to give DU a lead of 70-67, but the Trojans fought back with a lay-up, three pointer and consecutively made free throws to nab the win from the Pioneers.
Denver was in the lead for the first 38:40 of the game, but with only 1:19 left Troy tied and sent the game into overtime.
“One of these days we are going to play very well at the end of a game on the road. That’s what you have to do,” said Scott. “We need to put ourselves in the position to have the last three minutes mean something on the road.”
Other factors that contributed to the Pioneers’ loss were the Trojans 15 steals compared to Denver’s five and Troy’s 21 free throw points, while Denver only added eight free throw points.
Troy scored 21 points because of turnovers; Denver scored 10.
“Who knows what is going to be the thing that puts us over the hump on the road?” Scott said.
Although the Pioneers still cannot win one on the road, they beat South Alabama University (11-10, 4-6 SBC) 56-54, a top Sun Belt Conference competitor, on Thursday night in Magness Arena.
In a game where the lead and score each changed eight times, the result came down to the final three seconds, when a South Alabama player made a shot under the basket as the clock ran down.
This controversial basket would have sent the game into overtime but after the referees reviewed the shot, it was decided that time had already expired and the basket did not count.
Rohnert led the team in points, 12, and had a game winning drive to the basket with only five seconds remaining.
“Coach called a great play and set up a high ball screen right at the top. He told me to drive against and see what I could do, so I drove against, I kind of made a spin move, threw it up there and thank god we finally got a bounce,” said Rohnert of how he made the game winning basket.
Adding to the Pioneers’ victory were freshman Justin Coughlin, who played only 10 minutes but managed to get five defensive rebounds, and Stafford, who drilled a three pointer to give DU a 54-53 lead after being behind the Jaguars for over five minutes of playing time at the end of the game.
In addition to Denver making seven three-point shots and South Alabama making zero, DU had a shooting percentage of 48.8 percent compared to USA’s 43.2 percent.
“I definitely think you can start seeing a turning point from these last three games. We beat two of the so-called best teams in our league and you can really see our team coming around, playing better and playing more confidently,” said Rohnert.
The Pioneers also led the Jaguars in assists, steals and deadball rebounds. They trail, however, in the categories of rebounds, free throws and second chance baskets.
“We are so young. We are actually teaching our guys and our guys are learning what a college basketball season means, who the opponents are and that it is the Sun Belt Conference,” said Scott. “This is critical for us because if we can learn that this year with everyone coming back, it’s going to pay tons of dividends going forward. We are building a program for the long term.”
The Pioneers are back at home for Thursday’s game at 7 p.m. in Magness Arena against another conference competitor, Middle Tennessee State University.
Middle Tennessee is tied with Troy for third in the Sun Belt Conference overall rankings.
