CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. ? Freshman Whitney Hanley scored a season-high 21 points to lead Austin Peay State University women's basketball team to a 74-52 victory against SIU Edwardsville, Saturday night, at the Dunn Center.

SIU Edwardsville (1-10) made the opening basket and traded baskets with Austin Peay over the first six minutes. But Austin Peay grabbed the lead for good, 11-9, on sophomore Brooke Faulkner's three-point field goal at the 13:09 mark.

Austin Peay (4-5) used that basket to start a 10-2 run, pushing its lead to seven points at the 9:33 mark. The lead reached double-digits, 27-17, on Lauren Jones' basket with 3:43 left. Hanley scored the half's final four points to give the Lady Govs a 34-23 halftime lead.

The Cougars worked to keep the lead within single digits, but Emily Pollock's layup with 17:49 left pushed the lead into double digits again where it would stay the game's remainder. A Jasmine Rayner layup with 12:23 remaining pushed the lead to 20 for the first time. SIUE scrapped back to within 11 points, 57-46 with 6:16 left, courtesy a 13-4 scoring run.

Senior April Thomas stemmed the run with a conventional three-point play and the Cougars would not threaten again. Faulkner sank another three-point field goal to put the lead back at 20 with 55 seconds remaining and Hanley made two more free throws with 12 seconds left to set the final score.

Whitney scored 17 of her 21 points in the first half and finished the game 4-of-9 from the field and a perfect 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. Thomas recovered from a scoreless first half to post her season's second double-double, finishing with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

Austin Peay made only 35.5 percent of its first-half field goals and made only 39.1 percent of its field goals for the game. The Lady Govs also committed 25 turnovers ? just seven days removed from a nine-turnover outing at Eastern Illinois. APSU made up for the miscues with a dominating 48-30 rebounding advantage, including 19 offensive rebounds which it turned into 21 second-chance points.

Senior Jenny Wuest led the Cougars with 15 points. Melia Duncan added 10 points. SIUE committed 29 turnovers in the contest and made only 34.7 percent of its field goals.

Austin Peay begins a 2008-ending four-game road trip when it returns to action with a 7 p.m., Tuesday contest at Middle Tennessee.