APSU vs. Tennessee Tech box score
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. ? Austin Peay State University's basketball team withstood a broken backboard and a furious Tennessee Tech rally to hold off the Golden Eagles, 79-76, Saturday night in the Ohio Valley Conference opener for both teams.
The victory snapped a two-game Govs losing streak as they improved to 3-4 overall. Tennessee Tech fell to 2-6. It was APSU's first win Cookeville since the 2003-04 season.
Austin Peay led by as much as 19 second-half points only to watch the Golden Eagles roar back in the final 10 minutes. In fact, APSU led by nine points with 3:01 left before nearly frittering away the lead. The Governors committed five turnovers in that span and a technical foul charged to Drake Reed left APSU with a one-point lead with 12 seconds left.
However, the Govs' Derek Wright and Todd Babington both hit a pair of free throws in the final 10 seconds. The Govs then double-teamed All-Ohio Valley Conference guard Anthony Fisher with three seconds left, forcing him to take an off-balance three pointer as the horn sounded.
Five Governors scored in double figures, led by Wes Channels, who scored a career-high 25 points. Babington added 15 and Wright 14.
The Governors got off to an inauspicious start in the ball game, falling behind 4-0 in the opening minutes. However, the Govs came storming back, rolling off 15 straight points to build a double-digit lead.
However, the Govs missed some point-blank opportunities to extend the lead as Tennessee Tech began to claw back. The contest stood 19-9 when Tech missed a jump shot that both Amadi McKenzie and Daniel Northern attacked. In unison, the duo grabbed the ball and slammed it through shattering the backboard 9:31 left. It took nearly one hour and 20 minutes for the Tech game crew to replace the backboard and the game to resume.
It was anyone's guess who momentum would favor coming out of the long delay. But it was the Governors who came out hot, stretching the advantage to 17. Tech, however, would take advantage of APSU mistakes to cut it to 11 with 33 seconds left. But the Golden Eagles would turn the ball over in the waning seconds and Wes Channels hit Derek Wright with a pass just past midcourt. Wright let it fly with 0.3 seconds left in the half. It swished through and the Governors led by 14, 46-32, at intermission. Little did APSU know that the three-pointer would prove important at game's end.
Fisher led the Golden Eagles with 24 points while Daniel Northern added 18 points and 10 rebounds. Amadi McKenzie also had a double for Tech with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Despite turning over the ball 21 times and shooting just 3 of 19 from three-point territory and 19 of 33 at the free-throw line, the Golden Eagles were able to stay in the game because of a 44-22 rebound advantage, including 23 offensive boards that led to 24 second-chance points
In addition to his 14 points, Wright added five steals and four assists.
-AP-
