ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — (ESPN Clarksville) Prior to Saturday, the last time Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team won six in a row, the sixth win brought a championship back to Clarksville. So too did the Govs sixth straight win in 2018—maybe not an Ohio Valley Conference Tournament title, but it will do for now.
The Govs rallied from a halftime deficit to take a 75-66 victory against Liberty in the championship contest of the 2018 St. Pete Shootout. A jolly Christmas it will be, indeed.
The first half offered frenetic pacing and outstanding offensive showings. Both squads shot better than 55 percent for the half, with Austin Peay jumping out to a 9-2 lead thanks to a pair of big buckets by sophomore Terry Taylor; the Bowling Green native scored 14 points in the first half, with senior Steve Harris picking up 10 points of his own accord.
But Liberty put on a late-half showcase from the floor, hitting 14 of their final 19 shots from the floor to close the first. Over the final five minutes of the frame, the Flames outscored the Govs 18-10 with Georgie Pacheco-Ortiz and Lovell Cabbill netting five points apiece down the stretch and Keenan Gumbs beating the buzzer on a three to put the Govs down five points at halftime.
The Govs rallied. Quickly. Scarcely three minutes into the second half, jumpers by Harris and sophomore Dayton Gumm had the Govs within a point. At the 13:37 mark, Taylor tied it with a layup; two possessions later, his fourth three-pointer of the day put the Govs ahead for good.
That sequence from Taylor kicked off a game-altering 12-4 run that took the Govs from down a bucket to ahead by eight points. Austin Peay then proceeded to put the clamps down defensively, holding Liberty to just five made field goals—on 5-of-13 shooting—from the start of that run to the game’s end.
Taylor finished with 32 points on 12-of-17 shooting, blocking a pair of shots and generally forcing Liberty to account for him at all times; he was the clear Tournament MVP. Harris finished with 18 points on an efficient 8-of-12 night to earn All-Tournament honors of his own.