Troy’s third meeting this season with Arkansas State ended with the same result as the previous two, as the Trojans fell 81-66 in the semifinals of the Sun Belt Conference women’s basketball tournament on Sunday in Pensacola, Fla.

The third-seeded Trojans (20-13) trailed by 12 at halftime, but got within six points late in the third quarter. However, Arkansas State (20-10) pulled away with a 14-2 run over the final 1:44 of the third to build a 65-47 lead and Troy never got closer than eight points down the rest of the way.

“I think that we shot probably more poorly than we have all year in the beginning of that game, and that was a terrible mixture with not rebounding,” Troy coach Chanda Rigby said. “Because (Arkansas State) is the worst team you could have done that on because that’s how they got so much in transition because we were missing shots, not rebounding, and they were going in transition.

“I thought the team was really striving hard to get back in transition, but time after time after time we would have had to been perfect in those situations to keep them from getting a shot because that’s what they do.”

Kennedi Montue led Arkansas State with 21 points and eoight rebounds in just 20 minutes off the bench, while Crislyn Rose added 14 points and Zyion Shannon 13. The Red Wolves — who swept the Trojans during the regular season, 91-77 in Jonesboro and 89-85 in Troy — won despite shooting just 36% as a team.

Briana Peguero led Troy with 17 points, while Emani Jenkins chipped in 12, Shaulan Wagner had 11 and All-Sun Belt forward Zay Dyer scored 10 with 11 rebounds. Briann Jackson scored 10 points and grabbed 15 of the Trojans’ 52 rebounds.

Troy had a poor shooting night of its own, connecting on just 29% of its attempts in the game. The Trojans — unsuccessful in their attempt to win their first Sun Belt tournament title since 2021 — fell into an early hole with a 25% shooting effort in the first half.

Troy will now return home and continuing practicing, with an eye toward earning a spot in one of the various postseason tournaments.

“Because of the good play that they’ve had so far this year and some of the big teams they’ve beaten like Arkansas, and some of the big moments we’ve had, because they are a good team, there’s a very good chance that they’re going to earn postseason play,” Rigby said. “So it’s not over. Everything is up in the air.

“We’ll go back to Troy. They’ll be in school in class tomorrow morning. They’ll have a couple days off from basketball to rest their body and hopefully we’ll know a little more as the week goes on.”

Arkansas State advances to face top-seeded James Madison (28-4) in the Sun Belt championship game at 1 p.m. Monday, with television coverage on ESPN2. The Dukes beat No. 4 Coastal Carolina 89-65 in Sunday’s other semifinal, and are unbeaten in 19 games against Sun Belt opponents this season.