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HomeSportsAustin Peay Governors Basketball gets season opening win against Samford 75-64

Austin Peay Governors Basketball gets season opening win against Samford 75-64

APSU Sports: Austin Peay Men’s Basketball

Austin Peay State University GovernorsClarksville, TN – It took 10 games for Austin Peay State University’s basketball team to gain its first victory in a forgettable 2011-12 season.

It took just one contest for the Govs to gain that first triumph in 2012-13.

Austin Peay shot 53.8 percent from the floor while holding Samford to 38.6 percent shooting as the Governors claimed a 75-64 victory, Friday night, in the season opener for both teams.

Austin Peay's Travis Betran goes up for a dunk in Friday night's game against Samford.
Austin Peay’s Travis Betran goes up for a dunk in Friday night’s game against Samford.

It was only the fifth time in Dave Loos’ 23 seasons the Governors opened at home. The Govs are now 4-1 in those games.

A team that was bludgeoned repeatedly on the defensive end a year ago, the Governors held Samford, a normally superb perimeter shooting team, to just 2-of-24 (8.3 percent) from three-point range. The Govs were able to contain talented sophomores Raijon Kelly (11 points) and Tyler Hood (nine points), although 6-8 freshman forward/center Tim Williams did work his way inside for 23 points.

Will TriggsMeanwhile, for Austin Peay it was a case of working inside out. Will Triggs scored 15 points while fellow forward Anthony Campbell added 13. Forward Chris Freeman came off the bench to tally his first career double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Along the perimeter it was junior transfer Travis Betran leading the charge with 13 points, including 3-of-6 from three-point range. The Govs finished the night 9-of-20 from behind the arc. The nine three-pointers were one more than the Governors made in a single game a year ago.

Anthony CampbellThe Governors only trailed once in the game as Samford scored the game’s opening bucket. APSU then went on a 13-0 run, including three pointers from AJ Lynch, Campbell and Betran, and were never headed.

The Govs led by as much as 16 points on four different occasions in the first half before settling for a 38-28 halftime advantage.

Samford immediately made a run at the Governors to open the second half. In fact, when Connor Miller made a layup at the 13:43 mark, Samford was down by five, 49-44. For the next eight-plus minutes the Governors had trouble shaking the Bulldogs. Samford kept the deficit to single digits behind Kelly and Williams. Even a thunderous Betran dunk could not deter the Bulldogs.

Samford trailed by only six, 57-51, when Triggs hit a layup and Betran nailed a three to put the score at 62-51 with 6:44 left.

The Bulldogs would slice it to single digits only twice more until a Lynch jumper and a Campbell three-pointer with 2:35 remaining put the game out of reach, 69-55.

APSU returns to action 7:00pm, Tuesday when they travel to Bowling Green, KY, to face Western Kentucky in the first round of the Triple Crown Cancun Challenge.

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