Box Score |
Photo Gallery (by
Sandy King)
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Austin Peay jumped out to a 17-0 lead as Eastern Illinois did not score until 13:13 remaining in the first half. At the end of the night APSU ended EIU's season for the second time in the last three years in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament quarterfinals.
Austin Peay won 76-65 to improve 21-11 on the year. EIU's season came to a close at 17-15 as the Panthers posted just their third winning season in the last 20 years.
The Governors opened with a 17-0 run which
Shareef Smith finally snapped for EIU with a lay-up at the 13:13 mark. APSU would extend the lead out to 25-4 on a Terry Taylor 3-pointer as he scored 12 of his 27 points in the first half.
APSU ended the first half shooting 60 percent from the field as they led 42-19 at the half.
Jordan Skipper-Brown had six first-half points for EIU as the Panthers were held to 29 percent shooting in the first half and 42 percent for the game.
In the second half Austin Peay continued to drop in shots as they extended the lead to 28 points on a pair of Taylor 3-pointers. APSU was 7-of-12 from 3-point range for the night. EIU cut the lead to 19 points with 5:28 remaining on a bucket by
Josiah Wallace. Wallace finished the night with 11 points.
George Dixon finished with 12 rebounds as he became the first player since Kevin Duckworth in 1986 to finish in the EIU single season top ten for rebounding (281). Dixon added 15 points to collect his 11th double-double of the season.
Mack Smith drained a 3-pointer early in the second half to extend his streak of consecutive games with a 3-pointer made to 81, second longest in NCAA Division I history. Smith, a junior, will have chance next year to chase the NCAA record of 88 held by Cory Bradford (Illinois). Smith had 11 points.
Shareef Smith had 12 points while Skipper-Brown added 11 off the bench to round out the EIU double figure scorers.
Jordyn Adams had ten points for the Governors with all ten coming in the first half. Alec Woodard added 11 points.