TROY — The Troy boys basketball team took care of its end of the deal.

But, Sidney had other ideas.

The Trojans improved to 4-0 overall and in the MVL by taking control in the second half with a 71-59 win over Fairborn Friday night at the Trojan Activity Center.

Butler was looking to make it a battle of unbeatens Tuesday when Troy travels there, but lost to Sidney 53-33 Friday night.

Butler is now 4-1 overall and 3-1 in the MVL, while Sidney is also 3-1 overall and in the MVL.

Piqua and West Carrollton are both 2-1 and Tippecanoe opens its season today.

“It will be a big game,” Troy coach Mark Hess said. “We have a chance to remain in first place.”

Not unlike the previous game against Xenia, the Trojans found themselves in a battle for a half Friday night.

“I don’t like the way we have played in the first half in some of these games,” Hess said. “But, we have stepped it up in the second half.”

Troy found themselves trailing 38-37 at halftime Friday night as the Skyhawks shot nearly 70 percent in the first half and hit five 3-pointers in the second quarter.

“I didn’t think we did a good job of keeping them in front of us,” Hess said. “I thought there were times we got caught watching and let them get behind us.”

The second half was a different story as Troy held Fairborn to 25 percent shooting from the floor and gave up just 21 points after the break.

“I thought we stepped up,” Hess said. “We made some adjustments and we talked to them about just keeping the ball in front of us and I thought we did that.”

Fairborn was still leading 45-44 midway through the third quarter when Troy went on a 13-0 run to take a 57-45 lead and the Skyhawks never got closer than seven the rest of the way.

Nick Prince had four points in the run and Hollis Terrell capped it with a 3-pointer as five different Troy players scored during the run.

“We have had good balance all year,” Hess said. “That has been one of our strengths and it is a different guy every night. I couldn’t even tell you who led us in scoring tonight. And the great thing about that run is we created it with defense.”

Terrell had three 3-pointers in the second half and closed the third quarter with a buzzer beater to give Troy a 59-48 lead they would maintain throughout the fourth quarter.

Terrell led a balanced attack with 16 points, while Isaac Phillips added 15 points.

Prince scored 13 points, Noah Davis had 12 points and five rebounds. and Kellen Miller added eight points and seven rebounds.

Jaxson Roschi led Fairborn with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

Dom Graham scored 13 points and Caeland Bush added nine points.

Damyrin Furman scored eight points and Darius Davis Jr. scored seven.

Troy was 26 of 59 from the floor for 44 percent and 12 of 18 from the line for 67 percent.

Fairborn was 22 of 47 from the floor for 47 percent and 10 of 14 from the line for 71 percent.

Fairborn won the battle of the boards 27-25, but had 24 turnovers to Troy’s 21.

Now, comes the big game at the SAC.

“It will be game of contrasting styles,” Hess said. “They are going to want to slow it down and we are going to try and use our depth to play a little faster. And it is always a tough place to play with the different shooting background. It is a big game.”

After the Trojans took care of business Friday night.

You can reach Sports Editor Rob Kiser at [email protected]