CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. ? Austin Peay State University men's basketball team overcame a slow start and rolled to its sixth straight win, 73-57, against Eastern Illinois, Monday night, in Ohio Valley Conference action.

The victory improves the Govs' record to 10-6 overall and 6-0 in the OVC. Eastern Illinois falls to 2-13 overall, 1-6 in the OVC.

The Governors failed to score in the game's first 4:12, falling behind 5-0 before Fernandez Lockett nailed a jump shot at the 15:48 mark. By the time APSU reached the first media timeout, the Govs had committed five turnovers. APSU was charged with just four turnovers total in Saturday night's win against Jacksonville State.

After trailing 7-2, the Govs finally got untracked, going on a 12-0 run, highlighted by a pair of three pointers from Todd Babington. The Panthers would never get closer than five points the game's remainder as APSU built as much as a 15-point first-half lead before settling for a 38-24 halftime advantage.

Eastern Illinois scored the second half's first bucket but never would get closer than 12 points the game's remainder.

Drake Reed, despite struggling with a one-for-eight shooting night, led the Governors with 14 points, going 12 of 13 at the free-throw line. Freshman guard Caleb Brown enjoyed his season's finest performance, scoring a career-best 12 points as APSU's only other double-figure scorer. Point guard Derek Wright scored seven points, dished out seven assists and had three steals.

All 10 available Governors scored at least three points and nine of them played at least 12 minutes.

Eastern Illinois was led by Julio Anthony, who had a game-high 17 points. The Panthers played without leading scorer Romain Martin, who missed his second straight game with a foot injury.

Two nights after shooting just 14 of 28 from the free-throw line against Jacksonville State, the Govs bounced back with a season-best 20 of 22 (90.9 percent) from the line in the physical contest.

The Governors also forced 22 turnovers while collecting 14 steals?the eighth time this season they have finished with double-digit steals.

The Govs, however, did commit 16 turnovers, 12 in the first half. APSU had a combined for nine turnovers in the previous two contests.  

-AP-