CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — (ESPN CLARKSVILLE) Austin Peay State University men’s basketball simply found the iron unkind in Friday’s non-conference finale against Western Kentucky, falling 72-55 to the Hilltoppers, who made their first visit to Clarksville since 2004.
The black-clad Governors shook off a rough start that saw Western Kentucky take a 13-2 lead in the opening minutes and ripped off a quick 9-0 run in less than two minutes to jump back into the contest. A trio of three-pointers—including the first two of Ed Stephens’ Austin Peay career—jump-started the Govs and plugged the Dunn Center crowd back into the game.
The Govs closed the first half on an 11-4 run and seemed poised to build on it early in the second half, stretching the lead to seven (39-32) at the 18:08 mark after an Averyl Ugba three-pointer. But the Hilltoppers immediately countered with a 17-3 run of their own to retake the lead.
Back came the Govs, thanks to another Stephens three-pointer and three free-throws from freshman Terry Taylor to cut the Western Kentucky lead to a point with 12:23 to go in the contest. But a game-ending 23-7 run over the final 11:54 ultimately proved to be the Governors undoing in their final pre-Christmas contest.
To be certain, Western Kentucky outshot the Govs by a healthy margin (58.8 percent from the floor, compared to a season-low 34.5 for the Govs). It helped the Hilltoppers that many of those shots were from close range; Western Kentucky doubled up Austin Peay (46-23) on points in the paint.
APSU Head Coach Matt Figger said this about the game. “Give Western Kentucky a lot of credit; we got the ball into the high post and we just didn’t make any shots. I felt like we got passive, non-aggressive and disjointed as a team. They got more united as a team when we took that seven-point lead, and we got more disjointed.”