JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Austin Peay State University's basketball team dropped a 79-57 decision to East Tennessee, Saturday, at Freedom Hall.

LJ Thomas led the Governors with 15 points, while Tate McCubbin had a career-high 10 points and seven rebounds in the loss.

Daniel Loos – who made his first start of the season – opened the game with a layup, but the early score was answered by four-straight ETSU baskets, as a 9-2 Buccaneers lead forced an Austin Peay timeout with 16:31 remaining in the opening half. 

LJ Thomas ended a three-and-a-half-minute APSU scoring drought with a pair of free throws. Tekao Carpenter was the third Governor to find the scoring column, with his three-pointer answered by back-to-back ETSU triples.

Austin Peay cut its deficit to 24-14 with 8:32 remaining in the half following a Me'Kell Burries three-pointer, to end a stretch of six-straight misses from the field, and another perfect, 2-for-2 trip to the line for Thomas. 

Austin Peay made 3-of-6 attempts from the field, with Tate McCubbin and Anton Brookshire connecting on a pair of three-pointers, and held ETSU without a make from the field for over four minutes to cut its deficit to 29-22 with 3:52 remaining in the opening half.

The Govs and Buccaneers split the final 12 points of the opening half, with Loos making a pair of free throws with 24 seconds remaining for the final points of the period. 

The Buccaneers went 14-of-31 from the field across the opening 20 minutes, while holding the Govs to 8-of-26. McCubbin, Lax, and Carpenter led the Govs with five points in the first half, and Loos paced the team with a season-high six rebounds, including a pair on the offensive end. 

Austin Peay missed its first four attempts from the field, but cut the Buccaneers' lead to seven at 39-32 following layups by Thomas and Darius Dawson less than four minutes into the second half. 

ETSU went 5-of-7 from the field, including 2-for-2 from beyond the arc, to extend its advantage to 51-35. After LJ Thomas scored APSU's next four points off a pair of buckets in the paint, Terrell Gaines made his first-career attempt from the field, with the layup cutting APSU's deficit to 13 points.

Another one of APSU's three freshmen, Bowen Hammer scored his first-career points on a right-wing three-pointer with 7:33 remaining in regulation.

ETSU later went on to score 11 of the game's final 15 points to secure the 79-57 victory.

The Difference

The paint. Austin Peay was out-rebounded 46-29 and 15-9 on the offensive glass. ETSU also outscored APSU 42-24 in the paint. 

Up Next

After seven days off, Austin Peay's longest road trip since 2018 comes to an end with a 2 p.m., Dec. 8 game against Samford in Birmingham, Alabama. The contest against the Bulldogs is the Governors' second and final game as part of the 2024 Atlantic Sun – Southern Conference Alliance. 

Box Score Bullets

• Austin Peay fell to 30-42 all-time against ETSU, and 9-26 all-time against the Buccaneers in Johnson City.
• LJ Thomas led Austin Peay in scoring for the sixth time this season with 15 points. The scoring performance marked the eighth-straight game Thomas has scored in double figures. 
• Tate McCubbin scored a career-high 10 points and hauled in a career-best seven rebounds.
• Tekao Carpenter made Austin Peay's first three-pointer of the game with 13:05 remaining in the first half. The triple extended the Governors' program record of consecutive games with a triple to 709, a streak that began Feb. 23, 2002 against Southeast Missouri.
• Daniel Loos made his season's first start. It is the Clarksville native's first start since Austin Peay's 2023-24 nonconference final against Memphis (12/30/23).
• Quan Lax recorded his first block of the season and was the lone Gov with a rejection. 
• Tate McCubbin won the jump ball for Austin Peay. It is the second jump the Govs have controlled this season and the first since Nov. 17 at Tennessee.
• Bowen Hammer scored his first-career points off a right-wing three-pointer with 7:333 remaining in the second half.
• Terrell Gaines scored a career-high three points.
• Terrell Gaines' grabbed his first-career offensive rebound and laid it in for his first-career basket.
• Austin Peay's three freshmen, Tate McCubbin, Terrell Gaines, and Bowen Hamer combined for 16 points.
• Tekao Carpenter was the first Gov off the bench for the seventh time this season and for the fourth-straight game.
• Austin Peay's starting five of Tate McCubbin, LJ Thomas, Daniel Loos, Anton Brookshire, and Quan Lax fell to 0-1 on the season
• The Govs' starting five was its sixth unique starting five of the season and its fifth in as many games.