CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — (ESPN Clarksville) Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team wasted no time making a strong statement in Ohio Valley Conference play.
You don’t want to trifle with the Governors this year.
Behind exceptional shooting nights, including a career day from one of the newer faces on the roster, Austin Peay (9-5, 1-0 OVC) dispatched Eastern Kentucky (7-7, 0-1) in a wire-to-wire 93-75 victory in the Dunn Center.
The Govs planned to make it a long night for the Colonels from the opening tip and that plan was executed flawlessly. Thanks to four early three-pointers from grad transfer Jarrett Givens, Austin Peay found itself off to a 16-8 lead by the first media timeout, and built on its momentum from there. The lead mushroomed to 21 points, with Austin Peay hitting an incredible 17 of its first 23 shots, including 8-of-11 from beyond the arc.
Eastern Kentucky cut the lead to 15, once, with 5:25 to go after back-to-back threes by Dujuanta Weaver. A frustrated Austin Peay head coach Matt Figger called timeout, and the Govs outscored the Colonels 12-6 the rest of the half, with Eastern Kentucky hitting just one more shot from the floor over the final 5:25.
Givens was the story in the first half, though. The Tempe, Arizona native hit his first six three point attempts and scored 20 points over the first 20 minutes; it was a career night for him before he even re-entered the locker room at halftime.
Givens started the second half with a three; he’d finish with a career-high 25 points. Dayton Gumm sliced the lane time and again for dunks, and when he wasn’t doing that, he popped from the outside. In his first game as a Gov, junior Isaiah Hart sank a pair of threes, including a banker as the shot clock expired with 13:32 to play in the game. The lead ballooned to 28 points with under seven minutes to go.
The addition of Hart gave Figger a bit more of a bench to play with, and perhaps that helped contribute to a late 13-3 run by the Colonels to make the final margin a bit more narrow. Regardless, the Govs made a strong opening statement to the rest of the league on opening night of conference play.