When Austin Peay women’s basketball went from also-ran status to the upper echelon of the Ohio Valley Conference during the mid-1990s, it coincided with the arrival and presence of Amanda Behrenbrinker.
She is considered one of best post players in Lady Govs history. In fact, the Lapeer, Mich., native certainly made her mark in Lady Govs basketball history, helping lead the 1995-96 team to APSU’s first NCAA tourney appearance.
Her impact was immediate. When LaDonna Wilson brought the 6-2 center/forward on board, the Lady Govs went from a 10-18 record in 1993-94 to 15-12 in 1994-95. She averaged a team-best 10.7 points 8.6 rebounds per game to earn OVC Freshman of the Year honors.
A year later, she played a pivotal role in a 21-8 team that won the OVC regular-season and tourney championships while advancing to the NCAA tourney for a first time. That also was APSU’s first-ever 20-win season. In the NCAA tourney game at Clemson, she scored 11 points and grabbed 14 rebounds, still an APSU record for NCAA tourney play.
When Wilson-McClain left and Susie Gardner arrived, Behrenbrinker’s game never missed a beat in the coaching transition. In 1996-97, Behrenbrinker earned first-team All-OVC honors, averaging 17.8 points and 9.0 rebounds per game. She also was named Austin Peay’s Most Outstanding Female Athlete of the Year.
Early in her senior season, Behrenbrinker was amidst her best-ever basketball period. In fact, in five of the first six games, she recorded double-doubles, including a 38-point, 14-rebound effort at Chattanooga while averaging 26 points per game during that stretch.
The culmination of that early streak proved to be bittersweet. The Lady Govs went on the road to defeat perennial SEC and NCAA power Georgia, 71-56, with Behrenbrinker leading the way with 26 points. But it was discovered after that game she suffered a stress fracture in her right leg. Behrenbrinker would go on to miss seven games with the injury. It would be late in that senior season before she regained some of the form she displayed earlier that year. She averaged 18.6 points per game 9.2 rebounds while being named second-team All-OVC.
For a second straight year, Behrenbrinker was named APSU’s Most Outstanding Female Athlete. She also earned the prestigious Joy Award as the most valuable female senior athlete.
Behrenbrinker still is ranked fourth all-time in career scoring (1442 points) and eighth in scoring average 13.9 ppg while being fourth all-time in field goals made (525), seventh in field goals attempted (1130) and eighth all-time in field-goal percentage (.465). She also is third all-time in career rebounding (894) and fourth in rebound average (8.6 rpg) while being second all-time in blocked shots (124). She is third all-time in steals (224).
Her single-season scoring marks of 18.6 ppg (1997-98) and 17.8 (1996-97) rank eighth- and ninth-best all-time, while she holds three Top 20 marks in rebound average.
After graduating in 1998, she married David Sloan, a former APSU baseball player, who was a member of the 1996 OVC championship team. Behrenbrinker-Sloan serves as branch manager of Oxford Bank and Trust.
