Bowling Green, Ky. - Troy scored 19 unanswered second-half points to build on a one-point halftime lead and pick up a 40-20 win over the Western Kentucky University football team Saturday in the 2009 Homecoming game at Houchens Industries-L.T. Smith Stadium.

The win moved the Trojans to 7-2 and a perfect 6-0 in the Sun Belt Conference, while WKU fell to 0-9 and 0-5 in the league.

"Troy is a good, veteran ball club and they got it done in the second half," said Hilltopper head coach David Elson. "We really executed well in the first half and then just couldn't convert when we needed to in the second half."

Shawn Southward did all the scoring for the Trojans in the second half, rushing for three touchdowns in the period and finding paydirt four times in the game. His first score of the half came from one yard out to cap off an 11-play, 61-yard drive to give Troy a 28-20 lead with 7:13 to go in the third quarter. He added scoring runs of 10 yards and 39 yards for his other two second-half touchdowns to help Troy pull away for the win. The extra-point attempts on each of the last two touchdowns failed.

Southward finished the game with 139 rushing yards on 19 carries.

The Hilltoppers had the ball for nearly 22 minutes in the first half, and outgained the Trojans 310-147 in total offense in the opening 30 minutes. WKU wasted little time getting on the board as it was able to go 74 yards in 11 plays before Kawaun Jakes capped off the drive with a seven-yard touchdown run to put WKU in front early. However, Troy's high-powered offense answered quickly - going the same 74 yards in just 1:52 as quarterback Levi Brown completed five of seven passes on the drive, including a 10-yard pass to Zack Marcum to tie things up at 7-7 just seven minutes into the game.

On WKU's second offensive possession of the game, Jakes hooked up with Jake Gaebler for the second time in the game, giving Gaebler 150 career receptions - setting a new WKU career record.

As they did to start the game, the two teams answered each other's scores early in the second quarter of play. The Hilltoppers moved back in front when Jakes connected with Marcus Vasquez on an 18-yard touchdown to cap off a 70-yard drive and make it a 14-7 score with 13:05 to go in the half.

Again the Trojans responded, taking advantage of a short field to go 55 yards in six plays, and got a two-yard scoring run from Southward to again knot things up at 14-14.

The WKU defense was able to come up with a pair of stops, and got a 29-yard field goal from Casey Tinius to regain a 17-14 lead with 5:03 remaining before intermission. After forcing Troy into a punting situation, the Hilltoppers fumbled the kick, as it was recovered by the Trojans at the five yard line. Two plays later, DuJuan Harris found the end zone from five yards out to give Troy its first lead of the contest at 21-17 with 3:23 remaining on the first-half clock. The Toppers were able to put together one final drive before intermission, however, going 46 yards in seven plays before Tinius connected on a career-long 43-yard field goal to cut the deficit to one point at halftime.

After posting just 147 yards of total offense in the first half, Troy finished the game with 477 yards. WKU racked up 422 yards on the afternoon. Jakes rushed for a career-best 121 yards, while also completing 19 of 34 passes for 185 yards. Gaebler caught a team-best five passes for 57 yards on his record-breaking day.

The Hilltoppers head back out on the road next Saturday (Nov. 14) visiting Louisiana-Monroe for a 3 p.m. (CST) kickoff.