TROTWOOD — After nearly throwing the lead away against a suffocating full-court press, the Troy Trojans did something no Greater Western Ohio Conference North Division team has done against Trotwood-Madison in 19 games.

They won.

The Trojans — who saw a 22-point lead melt under the Rams’ unrelenting pressure — held on for a 79-74 victory on Trotwood’s home court.

It was the Rams’ first GWOC North loss since losing to Sidney by the same score on Feb. 13, 2009, and Troy’s first win over Trotwood since 2004.

For first-year Trotwood coach Rocky Rockhold, who had his entire team together for exactly one week of practice after the football team’s state title run, the state title was definitely preferred over the win Friday.

He nearly got both.

Troy (4-1) led 32-19 at the half behind Zach Martinez’s offensive display — he scored 23 of his 27 points in the first half before foul trouble put him on the bench almost the entire fourth quarter — and entered the fourth quarter up 55-41.

But the Rams (0-1) rallied with their pressure defense and nothing-to-lose attack to slice the lead to 68-65 with 1:37 to play. They got as close as 73-72 with 35 seconds left, but Troy’s Seth Lucas hit four straight free throws — two coming off an intentional foul — and closed out the game with two more with 10 seconds left.

Lucas hit all 12 of his free throws — including 10 in the fourth quarter — to help offset the loss of Martinez.

“We had some other guys who had to carry things through,” Troy coach Tim Miller said. “If Lucas doesn’t go 12-for-12, Trotwood probably goes over the top of us score-wise.”

Trotwood did go over Troy several times as Dezhontae Bennett (29 points) ignited the Rams’ crowd with a pair of rim-rattling dunks late in the third quarter.

But the Rams let the momentum slip away with a 17-of-37 effort from the free-throw line.

“I’ll never make any excuses,” Rockhold said of the delayed start to practice. “We just came up a little short tonight. It’s really hard when you dig such a hole.

“We’re glad to have the success the football team had. The benefits of them winning the state championship far outweigh how we struggled tonight.”