Down by 12 with less than nine minutes to play vs. Arkansas State on Thursday, Troy began chipping away until it finally broke through.

The Trojans scored 25 of the game’s final 32 points to take a 63-59 victory over the Red Wolves in the second round of the Sun Belt Conference tournament in Pensacola, Fla. Fifth-seeded Troy (20-12) advances to the quarterfinal round, where it will face No. 4 James Madison at 2 p.m. Saturday.

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“(Arkansas State) played us as hard as any team has all year,” Troy coach Scott Cross said. “… Down the stretch, the last eight minutes, we really, really buckled down defensively. We got stops, we got turnovers. We were starting to rebound the ball. We got offensive rebounds.

“To me, I feel like this game honors toughness. We always say ‘the toughest team always wins.’ They were the tougher team for probably 25 minutes of that game, but the last 8 or 10 minutes, we were the tougher team. We hit shots and were able to make plays.”

As with many of Troy’s biggest victories this season, it was senior guard Nelson Phillips who made several key plays. The Georgia State transfer converted a steal into a fast break dunk with 3:24 to play to pull the Trojans within one, then drained a 3-pointer with 2:40 left to give the Trojans their first lead of the second half at 59-57.

With 11 seconds to play, Phillips stole the ball away after Arkansas State’s Caleb Fields had grabbed an offensive rebound and Troy up by two. The Red Wolves were then forced to foul, and the Trojans’ Aamer Muhammad knocked down four straight free throws to put the game on ice.

“(Phillips) is a game-changer,” said Cross, whose team has won seven of its last eight games. “He is so quick. We took the guys to play dodgeball at Common Ground in Troy, and the kids couldn’t hit him. He’s quick as a cat. He’s like The Matrix. It’s just phenomenal. He tied an NCAA record with 13 steals earlier this year (vs. Southern-New Orleans). He’s one of the best offensive rebounders for a guard that I’ve ever coached.

“… When he’s playing well, it just ignites everybody on our team.”

For much of the afternoon, however, it looked like 13th-seeded Arkansas State (13-20) was going to pull off its second straight upset win in the tournament. The Red Wolves beat No. 12 Coastal Carolina 86-69 in the play-in round on Tuesday, then led Troy 51-38 with 8:55 remaining.

That’s when the Trojans went to work, as Cross said, rebounding and playing defense. Troy grabbed 16 offensive rebounds in the game, six by Phillips and five by Zay Williams.

Phillips and Williams both recorded double-doubles, Williams finishing with 15 points and 11 rebounds and Phillips posting 13 and 14. No other Trojans player scored more than nine points and grabbed more than six rebounds.

“It’s just (about) being aggressive, attacking the offensive glass,” said Williams, a second-team All-Sun Belt pick this season. “There’s really no secret about it, you’ve just got to want it. Coach preaches that every day.”

Arkansas State’s Markise Davis led all scorers with 21 points, while Ford and Fields had 13 each. The Red Wolves outshot the Trojans from the field (44% to 35), but made just one field goal — Fields’ driving layup with five seconds left — in the game’s final 5:33.