For just the second time this season, Arkansas State fell to a Sun Belt foe. The No. 4 seeded Troy Trojans edged the Red Wolves by the final count of 96-89 in Friday’s semifinal round of the Sun Belt tournament.

A-State led the Trojans 44-40 at the half after a back and forth first half. Despite going down 32-28 at the end of the first quarter, A-State out-scored Troy 16-8 in the second quarter to go up at the half.

The Red Wolves never found their rhythm in the second half, however, and struggled to prevent Troy from scoring. The Trojans out-scored A-State 32-15 in the third quarter to go ahead 72-59.

Troy’s Caitlyn Ramirez and Amanda Mendoza where the preverbal dagger in the side of the Red Wolves the entire second half. Ramirez finished the game with 24 points on 9-12 shooting from the floor and 3-3 shooting from beyond the arc, while Mendoza finished with 22 points on 6-11 shooting from beyond the arc. Troy also out-scored the A-State bench 23-2.

A-State battled to get back into the game the entire fourth quarter, but couldn't string together enough stops to re-gain the lead. Mendoza and Ramirez always the answer for the Trojans on the offensive end.

Troy finished the game shooting 48 percent from the field and 44 percent from three point range. The Trojans held the Red Wolves to 23 percent shooting (3-13) shooting from beyond the arc, and 47 percent from the field.

A-State was led in scoring by Aundrea Gamble, who was the big reason the Red Wolves were able to stay within striking distance in the fourth quarter. Gamble finished the game with 26 points on 10-18 (2-5) shooting to go along with eight assists.

Brittney Gill and Khadija Brown-Haywood also helped the Red Wolves scoring efforts, finishing with 22 points and 18 points respectfully.

With the loss, A-State has now been eliminated from the Sun Belt tournament. The Red Wolves will now turn their attention to the NCAA tournament selection show on Monday night at 6 p.m., and will hope for an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament. The selection show can be seen on ESPN.