RICHMOND, Ky.—Officially eliminated from Ohio Valley Conference post-season competition, Austin Peay State University now will attempt to play conference spoiler during the season's final week. First up will be Eastern Kentucky, 6 p.m., Monday, in Paul McBrayer Arena.
The game originally was scheduled to be played last Tuesday but weather and icy road conditions forced postponement.
Eastern Kentucky comes in 8-5 (16-10 overall), trailing Belmont by one game in the OVC East (the two teams are even in the loss column). The Colonels had been the OVC East's hottest team before losing to Belmont, 66-61, Thursday night. It happened without star guard Corey Walden, who was out with a minor injury. Prior to that loss the Colonels had rolled off six straight wins, ascending to the division's top spot.
Despite Walden's absence, EKU led by as much as 16 second-half points against Belmont. Walden is expected to play against the Govs. One of the OVC's best guard, he leads EKU in scoring at 18.7 points per game while dishing out 4.0 assists per contest.
Senior center Eric Stutz is averaging 15.3 points, shooting 61 percent from the floor and 45 percent from three-point range. Timmy Knipp has stepped into the starting lineup this season to average 10.8 points per game. Walden, Stutz and Knipp all are shooting 80 percent or better at the free-throw line for a team shooting 77.4 percent.
The Governors enter the contest reeling from Saturday's 89-54 defeat at Murray State. It was APSU's seventh straight defeat. Chris Freeman, Khalil Davis and Josh Robinson were APSU's only double-figure scorers with 12 points. Leading scorer Chris Horton, who had 10 rebounds, was held to just six points on 2-of-8 shooting.
The Governors season-long shooting woes continued as they made just 18 of 54 shots, 33.3 percent. It was the 19th time this season APSU below 40 percent.
-AP-
