CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — (ESPN CLARKSVILLE) Freshman Terry Taylor’s outstanding second-half performance helped Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team remain unbeaten in Ohio Valley Conference play with a 76-71 win against Southeast Missouri, Saturday, in the Dunn Center.
Taylor scored 24 of his game-high 29 points in the second half and Austin Peay (9-7, 4-0 OVC) now finds itself tied with Murray State as the only unbeaten teams remaining after two weeks of league play. Southeast Missouri falls to 7-10 (1-3 OVC).
The start was not what the Govs envisioned; Austin Peay missed its first four shots and committed four turnovers in the first 4:30 of the contest, trailing 11-2 just over five minutes in. Back-to-back runners in the lane from senior Tre’ Ivory provided Austin Peay some much-needed spark as they sought to find their footing in the game’s opening moments.
Once the Govs found their offense, they poured it on to the tune of a 16-2 run, highlighted by five points each from Averyl Ugba and Chris Porter-Bunton. Six of those came came via second-chance opportunities, which the Govs earned early and often—Austin Peay outrebounded SEMO 25-12 in the first half, including 11 offensive rebounds. Thanks to 10 points from Porter-Bunton and nine from Ugba, the Govs to a 36-27 lead into the break.
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Southeast Missouri forged a comeback in the second half. After the Govs stretched the lead to 11 points, the Redhawks needed less than three minutes to reel off a 15-5 run and cut Austin Peay’s lead to a single point.
What followed was a see-saw battle over the final nine minutes of play, as the Govs and Redhawks traded buckets and stops. When Southeast Missouri’s leading scorer, Denzel Mahoney, scored his 24th point on a three-pointer with 1:19 to go, it was again a one-point game.
After a missed jumper by Porter-Bunton and a turnover on the other end, the Govs had the ball and looked to bleed the clock down to limit Southeast Missouri’s chances for a go-ahead bucket. With the shot clock winding down, Ivory launched a three that missed its mark but was corralled by freshman Terry Taylor, the last of his career- and team-season high 14 boards. He was immediately fouled and hit both free-throws to put the Govs up three points.
The Redhawks had one final chance, but Southeast Missouri guard Jonathan Dalton lost the ball out of bounds as he turned to head up the court. The Govs got the ball in to Taylor, who was fouled and hit two more free-throws to wrap up the win for Austin Peay.
Austin Peay controlled the boards all night, finishing with a plus-21 (44-23) rebounding advantage, which resulted in a 24-5 difference in second-chance points. It’s the largest single-game advantage against an OVC opponent by the Govs since at least the 1999-00 season, when Austin Peay’s electronic record-keeping began. The Governors have now outrebounded opponents in six straight games, by an average of 10.3 rebounds per game, which has led to a 17.3-8.2 advantage on second-chance points; tonight’s plus-19 advantage equaled Austin Peay’s season-high.
“We found a way to survive. I felt like in the second half I got outcoached; Rick Ray’s a good coach and they did some things and we didn’t make the adjustments we needed to make. We got up 11 in the second half and never got a stop. That’s just our inability to figure out how to put our foot on an opponent’s throat,” said APSU Head Men’s Basketball Coach Matt Figger.