EVANSVILLE, Ind.—The end of the season is never fun. In the case of the 2020 Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team, this one might sting even more than usual.
They know how good they are and how close they were.
Twenty-one wins, a chance at the conference regular season title until the season’s final day and another appearance in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament semifinals. If you want to call it a disappointment (I wouldn’t), there are plenty of guys in that locker room who would agree with you following Friday’s 73-61 loss to Murray State at the Ford Center.
They had real plans on playing much later into March.
The Govs jumped out to a 13-5 lead, making life difficult for the Racers on drives inside with active hands causing deflections and turnovers. However, back-to-back DaQuan Smith three-pointers got the Racers back into it when the Govs were flirting with an early double-digit lead.
That kickstarted a 12-0 Murray State run, with a Tevin Brown four-point play lifting the Racers into the lead. After the game was deadlocked for a time, an Austin Peay cold spell coupled with another 11-0 Racer run gave the rival squad a 32-21 lead at the final first-half media timeout.
After the early success, the Govs had begun to settle too much offensively. Needing to close the half strong, Austin Peay got a lift from Evan Hinson, who converted a three-point play and later nailed a three as time ran low get the Govs into the break trailing 36-29.
Austin Peay erased the lead entirely thanks to an 8-0 start to the second half; Jordyn Adamsand Terry Taylor drained threes on back-to-back possessions, forcing a Racer timeout before Murray State could counter the Austin Peay attack.
Taylor scored 15 of his game-high 27 points in the second half, including a stretch where he scored 10 of Austin Peay’s 12 points over a near-10 minute portion of the second half. But with Adams battling a sore back sustained in last week’s meeting with the Racers and no other reliable option presenting itself, the Racers began to pull away during this stretch, three times getting multiple offensive rebounds on one trip down the floor before converting.
Taylor’s three-point play with 4:33 to go had the Governors within six points at 57-51, but Brown answered with a three and scored 10 points over the final four minutes to help the Racers solidify a place in Saturday’s championship game.