CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — (ESPN Clarksville) Sophomore Terry Taylor hit a big milestone and Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team avenged an early-season loss to Eastern Illinois with a 94-86 victory in the Dunn Center, Saturday.
The victory helped keep Austin Peay (18-7, 10-2 Ohio Valley Conference) atop the league and secured back-to-back 10-win seasons in the league for the first time since a six-year run from 2005-11. Eastern Illinois (13-12, 6-6 OVC) took the loss despite out shooting the Govs from the field and from three.
On the Austin Peay end of the court, the threes were flying early; the Govs hit four in the game’s opening 12 minutes, with Terry Taylor and Zach Glotta each hitting a pair. But where Eastern Illinois’ Shareef Smith had closed the previous meeting between these squads by scoring the Panthers’ final 10 points, he instead started out on fire in the rematch. The Madison, Wisconsin native scored 10 of Eastern Illinois’ first 18 points, including threes on back-to-back possessions to pull the Panthers within a bucket at the 11:22 mark.
Taylor seemed determined to get the 21 points necessary for 1,000 in his career as quickly as possible, almost as if he wanted to get past the mark and not worry about it anymore. He scored Austin Peay’s first five points, sandwiched a pair of buckets around another Glotta three with under 10 to play in the half and finished the half with 13. However, a late Panther run took the teams into the break with Austin Peay holding a slim 44-43 lead.
Post-halftime, the Panthers seemed to take an active interest in keeping Taylor under wraps; that just left more for his teammates, with Steve Harris scoring 11 of his 17 points and Chris Porter-Bunton 10 of his 12 after halftime. That duo, along with Jabari McGhee, scored Austin Peay’s first 23 points in the second half as the Govs stretched their lead to 12 points (67-55) with less than 13 minutes to play.
Taylor didn’t hit a shot from the floor until 4:58 remained in the second half, by which point the Govs had nearly relinquished the 12-point lead; however, he scored 12 of Austin Peay’s final 17 points, including the 1,000th of his Austin Peay career on a free-throw with 2:26 to play.
Prior to Taylor’s 1,000th career point, the Panthers had cut the Austin Peay lead to just two on a Rade Kukobat jumper; however, the Govs closed on a 9-3 run to put the Panthers away, with Glotta, Harris and Taylor sinking clutch free-throws down the stretch.