Berea vs. Austin Peay Governors

November 28th, 2012 | 7:00pm
Dave Aaron Arena/Dave Loos Court | Clarksville, TN

Clarksville, TN – After four straight games away from Clarksville, Austin Peay men’s basketball team returns home, 7:00pm, Wednesday, to face NAIA foe Berea (KY) College.

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APSU Men’s Basketball.

The Govs come home after going 1-1 in the Mexico portion of the Cancun Challenge. The Govs roared from behind to defeat Western Carolina before falling to Gardner-Webb in the Mayan Division championship game.

The 2-3 Govs will be battling a Berea club that is averaging more than 90 points per game and sports five players averaging double figures.

Fastbreak

• This is Dave Loos’ 23rd season as Austin Peay head coach and he is 365-313 at Austin Peay-the winningest basketball coach in Ohio Valley Conference history-while 447-366 all-time in his 27th season as a college head coach.
• Austin Peay was picked to finish third behind Murray State and Southeast Missouri in the newly formed OVC West Division in the preseason poll.
• After playing four straight games away from Dave Aaron Arena, the Govs now will play three straight at home.
• This is Austin Peay’s last November game this season.
• This is Austin Peay’s first-ever meeting with Berea, an NAIA member of the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC).
• Berea comes into the game averaging 93.3 points per game, although the Mountaineers lost at Milligan on Monday.
• Forward Tevin Webster leads is shooting 69.2 percent from the floor while averaging a team-best 15 ppg. He is one of five Mountaineers averaging in double figures, including guard Aaron Ponder and forward Koty Riley, both averaging 13 ppg.
• Berea is coached by John Hemenway, who is in his third season leading the Mountaineers. He previously was head coach at Dakota Wesleyan University in Mitchell, SD, where he made four consecutive NAIA Division II tournament appearances.

Jump Shots

^[3]For a second time in the early season, junior guard Travis Betran and freshman center Chris Horton were honored by the OVC this week. Betran picked up his second OVC Newcomer of the Week Award after leading APSU to a come-from-behind win against Western Carolina, scoring 22 points, 13 in the second half. Horton, meanwhile, was named OVC Freshman of the Week after recording four blocked shots in both the Western Carolina win and the Gardner-Webb loss.

This is the first of three straight home games for the Govs. They will play Fairfield, 7:30pm, Saturday, as a rematch of the 2011 Sears BracketBuster contest. The Govs then will meet Oakland City, 7:00pm, next Wednesday.

What You Should Know

The Series: This is the first meeting between Austin Peay, a member of the Ohio Valley Conference, and Berea, an NAIA member that plays in the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference..

Deeper Meanings

What A Win Would Mean: The Govs would start their three-game homestand with a victory…they would get back to the .500 mark at 3-3…they would go to 1-0 alltime against Berea College…head coach Dave Loos would go to 1-0 against Berea… Loos would improve to 1-0 against John Hemenway.

What A Loss Would Mean: The Govs would slip two games under the .500 mark at 2-4…it would be the Govs second straight loss…it would be APSU’s first loss to an NAIA school since dropping a 87-73 decision to then-NAIA member College of Charleston in 1990…it would be Dave Loos’ 314th APSU loss and 367th all-time.

All Mayan Division

^[5]A pair of newcomers, junior guard Travis Betran and freshman center Chris Horton, were named to the Mayan Division All-Tournament team during the Cancun Challenge. Betran averaged 20 ppg, shooting 55.6 percent from the floor that included 8-of-16 from three-point range.

Horton, meanwhile, earned such honors largely based upon his eight blocked shots in two games during the tourney. He also scored 10 points against Gardner-Webb in the Mayan Division title game.

Free Bird

Sophomore forward Chris Freeman, who started both games in the Mexico portion of the Cancun Challenge, has grabbed at least seven rebounds in each of the Govs’ five games. He is averaging 8.6 rpg for the season.

Assisted Living

When the Govs were credited with 18 assists versus Gardner-Webb it represented a season high.

Herdie Gerdie

^[6]Coming off the bench, sophomore guard Herdie Lawrence was credited with six assists against Western Carolina.

The six assists were a career best for the Georgia native.

Impressive Numbers

In two Cancun games, junior guard Travis Betran scored 40 points, connecting on 15 of 27 (55.6 percent) from the floor. Included in that was 8-of-16 three-point shooting. He tallied his first 20-point game with 22 against Western Carolina.

Block Party

Freshman Chris Horton continues to excel on the defensive end from a blocked-shot standpoint. He had eight blocked shots in Cancun–four each against Western Carolina and Gardner-Webb. He has blocked at least two shots in all five games and has 15 on the season. His 3.0 blocks per game average is tied for 14th nationally.

Double-Double

^[8]Starting in place of Will Triggs, who missed the game after misplacing his passport and initially was unable to travel to Cancun, sophomore forward Chris Freeman tallied his career’s and season’s second double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Freeman scored eight of his points in the second half.

Next Up

The Governors will take on Fairfield this Saturday, December 1st at 7:30pm at the Dunn Center in Clarksville, TN.