CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. ? A 17-turnover first half performance nearly doomed Austin Peay State University women's basketball team, but it rebounded with an impressive second-half performance to down Southern Illinois, 75-72, in non-conference action Wednesday night at the Dunn Center.
Austin Peay picked up its season's first home victory and improved to 2-3 overall. It was Southern Illinois' fourth-straight loss away from home as they fell to 1-5 on the season. The first half was bookended by a glut of Lady Govs turnovers ? nine coming in the half's first 10 minutes and the remaining eight occurring during the final seven minutes. It was the final group of turnovers that proved to be the most dangerous as Southern Illinois capitalized on the miscues as part of a 12-2 run, building a 10-point, 34-24, SIU lead with 3:04 remaining.
During the run, head coach Carrie Daniels pulled all five of her starters with 4:46 left and played the half's remainder with her five bench players on the court. Meanwhile, the Salukis would build their lead to a game-high 13 points on a Jayme Sweere three-point field goal with 53 seconds remaining. Senior Ashlee McGee would return with 1:36 remaining and helped lead Austin Peay to five consecutive points ? two coming on her free throws and the rest on Salem Richardson's three-point field goal on which McGee was credited with an assist ? cutting the margin to eight points, 41-33, at halftime.
McGee had 13 points at the break as did Southern Illinois's Ellen Young. Austin Peay's 17 turnovers in the opening frame led to 24 Southern Illinois points. The Lady Govs were able to minimize the damage by posting a 23-16 advantage on the boards.
Austin Peay resumed its half-ending run as the second half began ? ultimately piecing together a 22-9 run over a 13:30 span that began with SIU's largest lead in the first half, jumped the halftime break and resulted in a 50-50 tie at the 12:35 mark. The two teams would battle through three ties and three lead changes over the next five minutes when senior Amber Bacon's three-point field goal gave the Lady Govs a two-point, 61-59, lead with 7:57 remaining.
The Lady Govs would push the lead to 10 points with 4:29 remaining on senior Kellea Reeves lay-up, finishing a run of 11 consecutive points. However, the Salukis would not go away and scored 11 of the next 13 points, cutting the lead to one point, 73-72, with 1:12 remaining. After a nearly a minute of scoreless play, McGee was fouled and went to the free-throw line where she made both shots. Southern Illinois' had a chance to tie the game, but Young's jumper from the corner went begging and Austin Peay gained possession after the ball went out of bounds, sealing the game.
McGee led the Lady Govs with 19 points, making 8-of-9 free throws. Freshman Ashley Herring recorded her second career double-double ? a 16-point, 11-rebound performance. Senior Kellea Reeves added 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the field.
Austin Peay recovered from its first-half misfortune and committed just six second-half turnovers, finishing with 23 turnovers. However, the Lady Govs climbed back into the game with a 45-27 rebounding advantage, including a 22-11 second-half margin.
SIU's Young led all scorers with 26 points on 8-of-14 field-goal shooting. Sweere added 18 points, nine rebounds and five steals. Jasmine Gibson finished with 12 points.
-AP-
Quotes by head coach Carrie Daniels
The difference in play between the 1st and 2nd half
“Early in the first half we had some communication problems and didn't take care of the basketball. I thought in the second half our team started to make better decisions and play good hard nose half-court defense. That's what helped us chip away at SIU's (Southern Illinois) lead. On the offensive side, we kind of stood around and didn't come to the ball early in the game and at halftime I told our team to be more aggressive. In the second half, the intensity of our offense was a lot better which led to better shots.”
On focusing on the post players in this game
“We talked about playing inside-out this week in practice. We had a height advantage and I thought that we could use that coming in. Early on we went to our post, but as the game progressed we got away from that somehow. I told our guards at halftime that we needed to get back to feeding the post and attacking the basket. That's when we started to throw the ball inside we did a good job getting good looks.”
On protecting the basketball and turnovers
”It's something that's going to happen when you have a young basketball team. Our goal every game is to have 15 turnovers or less. In the first half it was hard for us to get into any type of rhythm because we didn't take care of the ball. We were being careless with the basketball and I didn't think we did a good job coming to the ball or setting screens. However, one good thing that we did do is out-rebounded SIU. Any time you do that you tend to balance out some of the mistakes you make by getting more chances at scoring. I thought we did a better job in the second half and it's something that as, a coach, I know we will continue to work on.”
