BRENTWOOD—Two of the three honors from the Ohio Valley Conference went to Austin Peay State University men's basketball this week, with Terry Taylor earning Player of the Week honors and Jordyn Adams nabbing his second straight Freshman of the Week award.
Taylor's 37-point, 16-rebound effort against Southeastern Louisiana is on the shortlist for best single-game performance by an OVC player in 2019-20—the 16 rebounds are a single-game high in the league this season, while the 37 points is behind only Eastern Kentucky's Jomaru Brown for highest single-game scoring performance.
For the week, Taylor averaged a double-double (25 points, 11.5 rebounds) with 2.0 blocks per game and 52.8 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from beyond the arc. Against Vanderbilt, he managed 13 points and seven rebounds in the face of constant double-teams, then went off against the Lions and keyed both game-changing runs—first, he helped cut the Lions lead to five with 10 points during a 20-11 run to end the first half, then followed that with 11 points and some outstanding defense during the Govs' game-ending 22-0 run.
Adams was no slouch himself, averaging 20.5 points and 4.5 rebounds, with excellent shooting percentage (56.5 percent from the floor, 71.4 percent from the line, 41.7 percent from beyond the arc) against Vanderbilt and Southeastern Louisiana. In just his fourth collegiate game, Adams scored 25 points against the Commodores—the first time since at least the turn of the century that an Austin Peay freshman had scored 25 against a Power Five opponent. He followed that up with 16 points against Southeastern Louisiana.
Taylor and Adams are the first Governor teammates to earn weekly honors from the league in the same week since Taylor and Averyl Ugba (Newcomer) for the week of Jan. 29, 2018. Adams is the first Gov with back-to-back Freshman of the Week honors since Chris Horton (Jan. 28 and Feb. 4, 2013).
Adams, Taylor and the rest of the Govs will be in action Monday night when they welcome South Carolina State into the Dunn Center for a 7 p.m. contest.
