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Hot start carries Governors to fourth straight win

APSU Men’s Basketball

Austin Peay State University GovernorsClarksville, TN – Visiting Chattanooga scored the game’s first two points but it was all Austin Peay State University after that as it rolled to an 89-57 victory, Monday night, in non-conference basketball action in Dave Aaron Arena.

The victory was the Governors fourth straight as they improved to 10-6 overall. UTC, meanwhile, lost its second straight and dropped it to 7-8 overall. The 32-point victory was largest in the teams’ 18 meetings. The previous largest was a 22-point victory by APSU back in the 1959-60 season.

John Fraley had a double-double against UTC. (Courtesy: Keith Dorris/Dorris Photography)
John Fraley had a double-double against UTC. (Courtesy: Keith Dorris/Dorris Photography)

After the Mocs’ Ricky Taylor connected on two free throws to open the scoring a little over a minute into the game, APSU went on an 11-2 run, sparked by TyShwan Edmondson’s three pointer. The Govs took a double-digit lead, 18-7, on a Melvin Baker dunk and the Southern Conference foe never could slice the deficit to less than 10 points in the half’s remainder. In fact, the Govs, playing their season’s best half of basketball, built as much as a 24-point first-half lead twice at 37-13 and 41-17 as the Mocs’ could not find the range against a determined APSU defense that limited UTC to 5-of-26 (19.2 percent) first-half shooting.

TyShwan EdmondsonThe Governors settled for a 41-23 halftime advantage and never opened the door for a potential second-half UTC comeback. In fact, Edmondson, who finished with a game-high 23 points, nailed a three pointer to open the second half and the Mocs never got closer than 17 points the game’s remainder. The Govs finished the night shooting 50 percent (31 of 62) from the floor.

The Govs led by as much as 36 points, 88-52, during the second half as they hope to take the momentum to Murray State for an 11:00am, Saturday Ohio Valley Conference contest, to be telecast by ESPNU.

Josh TerryEdmondson, who knocked down five three pointers en route to his third-straight 20-point effort, also had four steals. Josh Terry made it four straight double-figure contests with 16 points and seven rebounds.

Center John Fraley recorded his season’s second double and career ninth with 11 points and 11 rebounds. He also had three blocked shots and three steals.

Point guard Caleb Brown recorded a career-best 10 assists in 26 minutes. It was APSU’s first double-digit assist performance since Derek Wright had 11 against Murray State, January 31st, 2008.

Caleb BrownAll 11 available Governors played and scored in the contest.

Troy Cage led UTC with 13 points while Ricky Taylor and Chris Early added 12 apiece for the Mocs, who shot just 23.7 percent (14 of 59) from the floor, including only 5-of-26 from three-point range.

UTC did shoot 85.7 percent (24 of 28) from the free-throw line.

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