Women's Basketball January 08, 2016 By Cody Bush

Austin Peay wraps homestand with Saturday tilt versus Tennessee Tech

CLARKSVILLE – With a 2-0 Ohio Valley Conference start in hand, Austin Peay State University women's basketball team seeks its first three-game win streak since 2013-14 when it hosts Tennessee Tech in a 4 p.m., Saturday contest at the Dunn Center.

The Govs moved to 2-0 in league play thanks to its first come-from-behind victory of 2015-16 – a 61-59 win against Jacksonville State, Thursday. Austin Peay trailed nearly the entire first three quarters of the contest but used a 9-3 run midway through the fourth quarter to grab the lead for good. The Govs then stifled Jacksonville State over the final 74 seconds, including senior guard Tiasha Gray's blocked shot at the horn, to secure the win.

Gray's block capped an up-and-down night that saw her finish with 16 points and five assists. She played just 10 minutes in the first half, due to foul trouble, but bounced back with 12 points and four assists in the second half. Freshman Keisha Gregory chipped in a career-high 11 points and redshirt freshman guard Falon Baker added 13 points to help bolster the offense.

Tennessee Tech has dropped its last two conference outings, including Thursday's 56-50 loss to Murray State. The Golden Eagles could not recover from a seven-point second quarter, trailing at halftime and never regaining the lead. Senior guard Samaria Howard finished with 28 points, her third straight 20-point outing. She is averaging 24.3 points per game in league play – third among league scorers – and supplying more than one-third of Tennessee Tech's offense in three OVC outings.

Austin Peay and Tennessee Tech will meet for the 79th time since 1976-77, TTU owning a dominating 61-17 lead in the all-time series. The series has been more competitive since the 2000-01 season, TTU edging APSU by a 14-12 margin in recent years. Austin Peay won the last meeting in Clarksville, 79-70 on Jan. 25, 2014, but has lost four of the last five meetings.

THE MORE YOU KNOW

BANK ON BANKS: Junior center Tearra Banks is in rarified air at the season's halfway point, entering Saturday's game ranked among the top 15 of all Division I players in field goal percentage (61.2). Only one player in APSU history has finished a season shooting better than 60 percent – Gerlonda Hardin, who accomplished the feat all four years she played at Austin Peay and finished her career shooting 61.8 percent from the floor.

GRAY MILESTONE WATCH CONTINUES: Senior guard Tiasha Gray became only the fifth APSU women's basketball player to reach the 1,500-point plateau with her 27-point performance at East Tennessee, Dec. 21. She enters Saturday's game against Tennessee Tech with the possibility of moving up on APSU's career assists list:

GOVS LEDGER: Midlick inherited an Austin Peay women's basketball team largely unchanged from its 2014-15 edition. Four starters and 11 letterwinners return from a team that posted the program's best record since 2010-11. Senior guard Tiasha Gray highlights the returning group after earning Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors last season. Also returning are junior Tearra Banks, sophomore Brianne Alexander, senior Jennifer Nwokocha and junior Beth Rates – composing five of the team's top six in both scoring and rebounding.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN EAGLES: Tennessee Tech visits the Dunn Center following a loss at Murray State, Thursday, that dropped it to 1-5 in road contests this season. The Golden Eagles lone road win was a 73-64 decision at UNC Greensboro, Dec. 5. Tennessee Tech does its damage at the free-throw line where it ranks fifth among Division I teams in attempts (355) and eighth in free-throws made (243). More than one-quarter of the Golden Eagles offense comes from the free-throw line (for comparison, APSU scores only 18.4 percent of its points at the free throw line). Samaria Howard has been TTU's leading scorer in all 16 contests this season, only sharing the scoring lead in TTU's season-opener against Arkansas State. No other Golden Eagles player is averaging more than 10 points per game this season, junior guard Hannah Goolsby averaging just 9.9 points per outing.

AN AUSTIN PEAY WIN WOULD: Give it three consecutive wins for the first time since the 2013-14 season… Make it 3-0 to start OVC play for the first time since 2009-10… Be its second straight home win against Tennessee Tech… Make it 5-2 at the Dunn Center this season… Give it three straight home wins for the first time since the 2012-13 season… Make Midlick 5-11 overall and 3-0 in OVC play in his first season at Austin Peay and 50-27 in his third season as a head coach overall… Make the Govs 455-660 since 1976-77 and 231-330 in OVC action.

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