MARTIN, Tenn.—Austin Peay's basketball team heads back to the road in search of its offense as it travels to UT Martin for a 6 p.m., Saturday, Ohio Valley Conference contest in the Elam Center.
The Governors suffered their fifth straight defeat, Thursday, with a 66-55 home decision to Eastern Illinois. APSU shot just 23 percent (7 of 30) in the final half. It also was the 17th time this season the Governors shot less than 30 percent from the floor.
Only forward Chris Freeman avoided the Govs' offensive misfortunes, Thursday. The senior was 8-of-11 (73 percent) from the floor in scoring a game-high 20 points. The rest of his teammates were 10-of-43 (23 percent).
It was a difficult loss for the Governors in they dominated Eastern Illinois on the boards 36-24, and forced the Panthers into 18 turnovers. Now 2-9 in the OVC, the Govs hopes of advancing to the OVC tournament are flickering at best.
UT Martin comes in after a decisive 98-76 road defeat at Southeast Missouri in a strange contest where both Deville Smith (20 points) and Twymond Howard (21) scored 20 or more points and the Skyhawks as a team hit better than 50 percent of their shots, including 13-of-24 from three-point range. But SEMO tallied 25 points off 17 UTM turnovers and 38 points in the paint.
Despite the loss, the Skyhawks are 15-9 and 7-4 in the OVC, leaving them in third place in the division under first-year coach Heath Schroyer.
In the first match up, the Skyhawks prevailed 76-64 as Skyhawk senior guard Marshun Newell had career highs in points (23) and rebounds (17).
-AP-
