EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Behind a season-best 26-point night from senior Meghan Bussabarger, Austin Peay State University women's basketball team rolled to a 67-53 victory against Ohio Valley Conference foe SIU Edwardsville, Saturday, at the Vadalabene Center.

Austin Peay (7-17, 2-10 OVC) relished its role as spoiler against the Cougars (12-13, 6-7 OVC). While the Lady Govs are already out of next month's OVC Tournament, the victory not only avenged a 54-49 loss to the Cougars at the Dunn Center, Jan. 21, it also hurt the Cougars chances of moving up in the OVC West Division race; SIU Edwardsville has division-leading Eastern Illinois and second-place Murray State in two of its final three games.

After trading baskets in the game's opening minutes, the Lady Govs embarked on a 22-7 run spearheaded by Bussabarger. She came off the bench hot, hitting three first-half three-pointers and leading all scorers at the break with 13 points at the break.

The Lady Govs defense was dominating at times throughout this contest, particularly in the first half. Austin Peay forced 14 Cougar turnovers in the game's first 20 minutes, with freshman Tiasha Gray (four steals) and junior Nicole Olszewski (three steals) jumping passing lanes and clamping down on SIU Edwardsville's unsteady guard play.

Gray and Olszewski filled the stat sheet from the backcourt against SIU Edwardsville. Gray, the Clarksville native, scored a career-high 15 points, assisted on six Lady Gov baskets and pulled down six boards. Olszewski had nine points, eight rebounds and five helpers, while also tying Gray with a game-high four steals apiece.

As a unit, the Lady Govs defense shut down SIU Edwardsville all night, holding the Cougars to a 25 percent (17-for-68) shooting mark from the field and an embarrassing 4-for-18 (22.2 percent) from three. Not only was it the worst shooting day by an opponent against the Lady Govs this season, it was the worst by an opponent during Carrie Daniels' head coaching tenure. The last time Austin Peay held an opponent to a worse shooting night was Nov. 25, 2005, when Memphis shot 21.9 percent (16-for-73) from the field.

With Gray and Olszewski locking down the defensive end, Bussabarger was free to abuse the Cougar defense on the other end of the court. Her season's sixth 20-point effort came on 10-for-15 shooting, including 3-for-5 from beyond the arc.

Bussabarger chipped in with seven rebounds and hit a number of timely shots to jumpstart the Lady Govs offense, which grew stagnant at times in the second half. When SIU Edwardsville's Raven Berry hit a lay-up to cut the Lady Govs lead to 10 with 7:39 remaining, it was Bussabarger who hit the jumper to end a five-minute Lady Govs scoring drought, after which Austin Peay clamped down defensively and allowed the Cougars to hit just two shots from the field for the rest of the game.

The Lady Govs continue the Illinois swing with a 7 p.m., Monday, game at Eastern Illinois at Lantz Arena.