CHAMPAIGN, Illinois — (ESPN CLARKSVILLE) To the final whistle, to the final loose ball, to the very last moment, Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team sought to make a little magic against Big Ten foe Illinois, Wednesday. The Govs had chances into the final minute but couldn’t get one last dagger to fall, dropping a hotly-contested 64-57 contest to the Fighting Illini at the State Farm Center.
The Govs took a 28-26 lead into the half thanks to bulldog defense and a breakout from senior Averyl Ugba, who scored the game’s first points on a jumper and didn’t stop the rest of the half, finishing the opening 20 minutes with nine points on 4-of-4 shooting.
Austin Peay would lead by as many as five with 9:02 remaining in the contest, on the heels of a 9-3 run that saw Ugba slam home a SportsCenter-worthy dunk and freshman Dayton Gumm rain in a well-time three-pointer.
The teams would trade buckets down the stretch, with Leron Black’s free-throw at the 5:16 mark tying the game at 50. The Fighting Illini would finally pull away thanks to 6-of-8 free-throw shooting during the last five minutes, with Te’Jon Lucas scoring seven of his nine points over the final 1:53.
Foul trouble—four Govs wound up with four or more fouls, with Austin Peay totaling a season-high 27 as a team—beget a substantial difference in attempts and makes at the charity stripe. Illinois was 20-of-28 at the line, while Austin Peay was only able to hit 7-of-13 attempts.
APSU Head Coach Matt Figger said this about the game. “Physically, we came to play—our physical effort was tremendous. Our execution and our turnovers just keep biting us when we’re in games like this. We can’t have empty trips or hesitation because we don’t know. I probably did a terrible job with some of stuff around the four-minute mark, but I gotta give Illinois a lot of credit, they took us out of ball-reversal and things like that.”
A 10-day hiatus will find the Govs through exams and well into December before they hit the hardwood again. That contest—the final non-conference road appearance of the season—takes place at Evansville, Dec. 16, tipping off at 3 p.m.