Men's Basketball | January 30, 2019
CLARKSVILLE—Austin Peay State University men's basketball looks to get back in the win column as the Govs hit the road once again for Cookeville and a Thursday night, ESPNews contest against Tennessee Tech.
The Govs are on the hunt for their first victory in the Eblen Center since 2009 and their best January finish since 2007.
Current Austin Peay assistant coach Rick Cabrera is intimately familiar with Thursday's foe—he was an assistant at Tennessee Tech for five seasons and played for the Golden Eagles in college, graduating in 1999 with his bachelor's and in 2001 with his master's.
Scouting the Golden Eagles
Tennessee Tech will have three distinct disadvantages against Austin Peay Thursday night: rebounding, scoring and free-throw shooting. Scoring-wise, Tennessee Tech ranks last in what is admittedly a high-scoring league--all 12 schools average at least 70 points per game--but are far behind Austin Peay's 83.0 average as a team.
The Golden Eagles are outrebounded by more than three boards per game, a situation the Govs can exploit with ball-hawking machines like Terry Taylor, Chris Porter-Bunton and Jabari McGhee. Tennessee Tech has struggled on the glass on both ends of the floor and are the only team in the league in the bottom three in both offensive and defensive rebound percentage.
With Austin Peay missing Dayton Gumm, the Governors advantage if the game devolves into a free-throw contest is lessened; the Govs are a hair under 70 percent as a team this season, by no means among the league's elite at the stripe. But Tennessee Tech is among the nation's worst at the line, hitting just 60.1 percent as a team--348th out of 351 squads.
Last Time Out Against Tennessee Tech
Averyl Ugba (19 points) led five Govs in double figures, but Austin Peay dropped an 86-80 decision to Tennessee Tech in the Dunn Center, Feb. 15, 2018, snapping the Governors six-game home winning streak. Chris Porter-Bunton hit all five shots from the floor on his way to 13 points, but the Govs lost the battle of the boards (35-31) and fell to 0-9 on the season when being outrebounded.
Keep An Eye On…
- A win would the Govs first against Tennessee Tech in the regular season since 2014.
- Senior Zach Glotta needs to hit five three-pointers to pass Travis Betran (2012-14) for ninth all-time with 160.
- Austin Peay's turnover margin stands at plus-25 over the last four games.
- Senior Chris Porter-Bunton is averaging 17.4 points on 56.0 percent (28-of-50) shooting from the floor, chipping in 2.6 steals over the last five games.
- A win would be Austin Peay's 70th win all-time against Tennessee Tech.
- Austin Peay stands at 18 consecutive games hitting at least 40 percent from the floor entering Thursday's contest.
- Sophomore Terry Taylor is 91 points from 1,000 for his Austin Peay career.
They Said It
Govs Online
Check back at LetsGoPeay.com and on Austin Peay's Official Athletics Facebook page often for up-to-date news about all Governor athletics, as well as the Governor men's basketball Twitter page (@AustinPeayMBB). Live stats will be available during the game at PeayStats.com, and all home games and Ohio Valley Conference games can be viewed on the ESPN+ app. Postgame video interviews and other videos from around APSU Athletics can be found on our YouTube page (www.youtube.com/letsgopeay).
