EVANSVILLE, Indiana — (ESPN CLARKSVILLE) A dominant performance from freshman Terry Taylor led to a late rally on the road forced to force overtime, but Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team simply ran out of time against Evansville, falling 78-74 to the Purple Aces at the Ford Center, Saturday.

Taylor had one of the best performances of a still-young Austin Peay career, pouring in a career-best 30 points on 12-of-17 shooting to lead all scorers. But a resilient Evansville side hit timely three-pointers and willed itself to the line in overtime to overcome a late surge from the Govs.

Austin Peay jumped out to an early advantage thanks to Taylor, who scored six of Austin Peay’s first 15 points to build an early eight-point lead. But a 26-10 Evansville run reversed the script and seemed poised to take a large advantage into the break before a late Austin Peay surge cut the deficit to three at the break.

The Purple Aces would push the advantage as high as nine points with under 10 minutes to go in the second half, but a resilient Austin Peay squad wouldn’t go quietly. Taylor took over down the stretch, scoring 10 points in eight minutes as part of a 15-5 Austin Peay run to put the Govs ahead a bucket with 1:48 to go.

In the final minute of regulation, Evansville’s K.J. Riley hit four free-throws—part of a 14-of-17 showing at the line for him—to put the Purple Aces up three with one possession left. Working around the perimeter, senior Averyl Ugba got a wide-open look from the left side and drained a three with 1.1 to go to force overtime.

In the extra session, Riley had six points and Blake Simmons added five as the Purple Aces came out firing. Junior Zach Glotta hit a three to cut the Austin Peay deficit to two at the halfway point of the extra session, but that would be as close as the Govs got during the final frame.

APSU Men’s Head Basketball Coach Matt Figger had some overall thoughts on the game. “We showed some resilience but that’s getting old. Close but no cigar is getting old. We made immature plays and we’ve got to toughen up. I didn’t like our approach today at all. The same mistakes are happening. The lack of execution, the lack of having five guys on the same page at the same time… that’s my fault,” Figger said.

The Govs return to the Dunn Center Tuesday at 7 p.m. to take on Troy.