The Greenville Tigers’ stellar defensive play carved a path to victory Tuesday on the road in Troy after trailing Charles Henderson the entire game for a 69-62 comeback victory.

The win improves the Tigers to 11-3 on the season and 2-0 in area play.

The narrow competition was a far cry from the two teams’ previous meeting a week ago in Greenville, where the Tigers thrashed the visiting Trojans 80-59.

Tuesday, by comparison, was a much tougher affair as Jalen Tuck helped the Trojans jump out to an early lead that they sustained for nearly three quarters of the game.

But Greenville head basketball coach Stu Stuedeman said that his players’ mental fortitude was the proverbial fuel for the fire.

“It was a real gutsy team win for us,” Stuedeman said. “We trailed all game and had some breaks go against us, but we never quit coming, never quit fighting and just gutted it out in the end.

“We preach being bigger than adversity and our guys showed a lot of toughness and togetherness [Tuesday night] and we’re bigger than adversity.  I’m immensely proud of our team for this win. This is the type of win you can hang your hat on come playoff time.”

Tyler Stone led the Tigers with a double-double performance of 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Charles Warren chipped in with 16 points, followed by Romontez Rhodes with 9 points.

The Tigers were back in action against Brewbaker Tech on Friday night, but results were unavailable at press time.