Box Score TROY, Ala. – Mississippi University for Women made a little bit of history on Thursday evening at Troy University, as it played an NCAA Division I team – albeit in an exhibition – for the first time in men's basketball program history. The Owls fell to the Trojans, 96-42, at Troy Arena.
 
Troy led wire-to-wire in the game that, while helping the Owls get ready for the 2022-23 season, will not affect its ledger. All 14 members of Head Coach Dean Burrows' roster got playing time on the big stage.
 
"As a staff, we knew exactly what we were signing up for when we agreed to the opportunity that Troy gave us tonight," Burrows said. "It was done deliberately on our part. Every kid dreams of playing at the D1 level but the reality is, not everyone does or can, which is more than fine. We will always try to provide our guys with as many 'Moments and Memories' as we possibly can in order to try and make it the 'big time' for our guys.

"With our being able to 'flex' it to an exhibition game on our end, and it not counting in our overall record, it's a no brainer. Coming in, we wanted to see how far we've come in the 20 practices that we've had to this point. Troy has been practicing more or less all year round, being a Division 1 program, so they're obviously a little further along than we are. We believe doing this as we did will allow the game to slow down for our guys as we prepare to compete against teams at our own level."

Junior Thomas Wright led The W in scoring with nine points. Wright was 4-for-8 from the floor. He also had a team-leading six rebounds to his credit, as well.
 
Senior guard Quintiyus Causey added six points and Brye Hopkins tallied five. Hopkins pulled down three boards and Causey had two steals.
 
Junior guard Milos Zeradjanin and newcomer Tyson Smithey each booked four points. Smithey had four rebounds and a pair of thefts, as well.
 
Shon Wright, Charlie Werner, and Grayson long each had three points, with Chris Evans and Nathan Reed scoring two. Dariun Doss had one point to round out The W scoring.
 
While no Owls had double-figure point totals, Troy had five individuals in double figures in points scored.
 
"We obviously couldn't replicate their height, length, physicality, etc. in practice and when you're up against it live, it can be more than a hindrance," Burrows explained. "We took away many things that we will continue to work to build and improve upon daily and when we did do what we worked on heading into the game, we looked good to the point one of their assistant coaches asked why we went away from those things. The little things we discuss and rep daily was what disappointed me the most and what'll go a very long way in determining what type of season this group has. We got the work in that we wanted and had our guys' eyes opened to how hard you have to compete on a consistent basis. Our university received free marketing and exposure with the game being on ESPN+ and our guys got to do something that not many get to do."
 
MUW will not have long to wait for the season to open for real, as the team will head a couple hours up the highway to play host Birmingham-Southern College on Friday evening (8 p.m.) in the B-SC Classic. The W will take on Piedmont on Saturday (6 p.m.) in its other game of the tourney.