CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – When your biggest rival comes to town, you put on a show that people will be talking about for a long, long time.

Austin Peay State University's basketball team held Murray State to 49 points – the lowest points allowed in the 82-year-old rivalry – en route to a 53-49 victory in front of a sell-out crowd of 5,808, Saturday, on Gary Mathews Court at F&M Bank Arena.

DeMarcus Sharp led Austin Peay (5-6) with his fifth 20-point performance of the season in a 20-point, nine-rebound outing. His nine rebounds were tied for a game-high mark alongside teammate Hansel Enmanuel, who also hauled in a game-best four offensive rebounds.

The Racers (3-5) set the tone early with back-to-back three-pointers to open Saturday's game, while holding the Govs to five-straight misses, helping them build a 6-2 advantage after Daniel Loos scored the Govs' first points on a layup with 3:55 into the opening half.

Sharp was the next Gov to enter the scoring column to make it a one-score game which was answered by another Racers' three-pointer.

Five of the MSU's first seven makes from the field – and 10 of its first 12 attempts – were from three-point range, with its final make in that streak giving it a 17-16 lead with 8:51 in the first half. After those five early three-pointers, Austin Peay would go on to limit Murray State to just two made baskets from long range on 15 attempts in the final 29 minutes.

Sharp tied the game at 17 on a split trip to the free throw line, while back-to-back free throws by Sai Witt gave the Govs a two-point advantage following the under-8 timeout.

Murray State retook a three-point lead in the final four minutes of the opening half, and led 24-21 before Enmanuel grabbed an offensive board and posterized a Racers' defender under the rim. A Racers' layup was answered by Ja'Monta Black's first of three three-pointers to bring the two teams to a 26-26 stalemate with 1:38 remaining in the period.

A missed triple by the Racers fell into the arms of Black with under nine seconds later, who passed the ball to Sharp, dribbled to the top of the key, side-stepped to the left and hit a buzzer-beater over MSU's Rob Perry to give the Govs a 28-26 lead heading into the locker room.

Sharp led the Govs with 10 points and six rebounds at the break, as the Govs, despite shooting just 32.3 percent from the field across the opening 20 minutes, led by two after turning the ball over just once.

The Govs extended their lead to seven after scoring the first five points of the second half, but had their lead diminished to one with 14:37 remaining following three-straight MSU makes. 

Murray State took its first lead of the second half on back-to-back three-pointers – its final of the game – at 38-37 and held its final lead of the evening at 42-39 with 7:32 left to play.

That MSU advantage was answered by back-to-back Black threes, as  the Govs built a seven-point lead following back-to-back Sharp makes. 

Five-straight MSU points brought the game back within two, before a pair of Enmanuel blocks – his second and third of the game – kept the Racers from tying the game, as Dezi Jones scored the final two points of the evening via a perfect trip to the charity stripe during a one-and-one opportunity.

Up Next

Austin Peay hits the road and travels north for a pair of back-to-back games, beginning with a 7 p.m., Tuesday contest against Southern Illinois, followed by a 2 p.m., Dec. 16 game against another long-time rival and former Ohio Valley Conference for, Western Kentucky.

The Difference

The Austin Peay faithful. Despite weather conditions which featured numerous tornados across the Clarksville-Montgomery County area, Govs Nation was in full force for Saturday's rivalry game. The sellout was the first in F&M Bank Arena for either basketball program and led to Austin Peay's first win against the Racers since Dec. 21, 2020 in the Winfield Dunn Center.

Inside the Box Score

• Austin Peay played in front of a sellout crowd for the first time at F&M Bank Arena.
• Austin Peay ended a three-game losing streak to rival Murray State and improved to 30-31 all-time against them in program history.
• The 49 points allowed against Murray State are the lowest the Govs have allowed in the 82-year-old rivalry, surpassing the previous record of 50 which came in a 67-50 win against them in the 2009 Ohio Valley Conference Tournament semifinals.
• DeMarcus Sharp's 20-point outing is the 11th by a Gov this season, five of which belong to him.
• DeMarcus Sharp and Hansel Enmanuel's nine rebounds are tied for the seventh-most by Govs in 2023-24.
• Despite being limited to its second-lowest field-goal percentage this season, the Govs posted their second-best defensive field-goal percentage outing, holding MSU to just 37.3 percent from the field on 51 attempts.
• Austin Peay tuened the ball over a season-low four times, while forcing 10 MSU turnovers. The Govs now have forced at least 10 turnovers in all 11 games this season.
• Austin Peay hauled in 11 offensive rebounds, and now have hauled in double-digit offensive boards in nine of the last 10 games. 
• The nine lead changes in Saturday's game are the most this season, surpassing a mark of seven against Tennessee State and Fisk.
• Austin Peay had 12 second-chance points off its 11 offensive rebounds. The Govs improved to 4-0 this season when recording more second-chance points. 
• Austin Peay is on its first winning streak of the season. It improved to 1-3 when coming off a win through the first 11 games of the season.
• The Govs now are 3-0 when holding opponents to under 60 points.
• Austin Peay now is 4-2 when playing in the Volunteer State, and 4-1 when playing on Gary Mathews Court at F&M Bank Arena. 
• With Dezi Jones' three-pointer with 13:03 remaining in the first half, Austin Peay extended its streak of consecutive games with a triple to 676, a streak that began Feb. 23, 2002.
• DeMarcus Sharp extended his mark of consecutive games of scoring in double figures to 11 games. The last Gov to score at least 10 points in 15-straight games is Terry Taylor's mark of 29 games to end his APSU career, March 5, 2020-March 4, 2021.
• Hansel Enmanuel matched his career's best outing with three blocks. Those three blocks are tied with a mark set against Sacramento State in the 2023 SoCal Challenge, Nov. 22.

Coach's Corner

With Austin Peay Head Basketball Coach Corey Gipson

On the impact of the win both on and off the court… "So much went on today. There was so much uncertainty before the game. When we were going through shootaround, we had to come in here and seek shelter in the locker room. During that time, so much can go through your mind because inside here, we were safe, but outside we did not know what was going outside of here. I got word from a local police officer and they told me that there were some fatalities in town and that really saddened my heart. I had no idea who would show up today for this competitive rivalry, but to see so many people come out, even through the turmoil and the storm, it really, really, really put a soft spot in my heart of what this means to Austin Peay and Murray State. People had to go through something to get here. Both teams fought hard. I am really proud of our team with how we played defensively and how selfless we played offensively."

On beating Murray in his first year… "We are just 11 games in. That just shows you how much we have grown in a short amount of time. This is really a process; it is a marathon. When you have a group like this that is coming in for the first time together, playing under the lights for the first time together and being in a new environment, you want to see the progression with the right habits. This team has really bought in to something that we say and that is 'sit on our hands, cover your eyes, and ball up and play with it.' If you ball up and play with it, you can't eat it. If you sit on your hands, you can't grab it. If you cover your eyes, you can't see it. If our guys continue to remain steadfast on that, and are willing to postpone immediate gratification and understand that hard work and discipline are not the same thing… we have to continue to be consistent with hard work and we have to continue with discipline on and off the floor. When those two things come together, we really have something special."

On the standout performance tonight… "I feel like Stacheville took the next step. I feel like all the fans with unconditional love and support took the next step. I feel like we as a staff and team took the next step. I feel like all the support staff and administration took the next step. This was a collective effort. The energy was electric. Before, during and after, there was never a stale moment in this game. I was just so impressed and elated with how we all came together equally-yoked to get the outcome we wanted."

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