Govs fend off Colonels for pivotal OVC victory

RICHMOND, KY. — (CLARKSVILLENOW) Forty minutes was not nearly enough in a wild contest between Austin Peay State University men’s basketball and Eastern Kentucky, Wednesday night. No, they needed five more to pack in all this game had to offer.

Zach Glotta hit a three with 5.3 seconds left in regulation to tie the game up and send it into overtime, where Austin Peay held off its host for an 83-81 win at Alumni Coliseum, moving to 4-6 in OVC play and setting up a showdown with Tennessee State—which currently stands 4-5 and would be the No. 8 seed in the OVC Tournament—on Saturday.

Austin Peay’s John Murry was the main attraction in the first half. The Indianapolis native poured in 17 points, including yet another patented 10-points-in-less-than-five-minutes outburst, to give Austin Peay a 36-31 lead at the break.

The second half was a chess match, with both teams matching each other to the final whistle. When Austin Peay’s lead stretched to seven points with 14:23 to go, the Colonels went on a quick 7-0 to tie it—one of 14 ties and 16 lead changes in this contest.

After taking a four-point lead with 1:58 to go, another 7-0 Eastern Kentucky run put the Colonels up three with less than a minute to go. But Glotta, after securing a loose ball following an Austin Peay miss, stepped back, pump faked and launched a rainbow that swished through to tie it up—one of four threes hit by the O’Fallon, Mo., native in the second half.

In overtime, senior Kenny Jones scored eight of the Govs 12 points—including an emphatic dunk with 1:51 to go that put the Govs ahead for good. He finished with 23 points and a career-high 14 rebounds, one of five Govs in double figures—Murry led the way with a career-high 27 points.

The Govs didn’t just win the rebounding battle—Austin Peay controlled the glass to the tune of a plus-nine rebounding margin (38-29), led by Jones (14 boards) and Jared Savage (eight). It was the Governors largest positive margin against a Division I foe since March 2, 2016 against Tennessee Tech in the opening round of the OVC Tournament.