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HomeSportsAPSU Basketball stumbles at Fort Wayne 98-58

APSU Basketball stumbles at Fort Wayne 98-58

APSU Sports Information

APSU Men's Basketball - Austin Peay State UniversityFort Wayne, IN – Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team got another strong performance from senior Kenny Jones, who scored 20 points and added nine rebounds against Fort Wayne, Saturday.  

Austin Peay Men's Basketball gets off to slow start at Fort Wayne Saturday. (APSU Sports Information)
Austin Peay Men’s Basketball gets off to slow start at Fort Wayne Saturday. (APSU Sports Information)

Unfortunately, Jones’ performance came on the wrong end of a 98-58 decision against the Mastodons at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.

The Mastodons (8-3) roared out of the gate on a 26-6 run and never looked back, hitting 10 of their first 13 shots while the Governors (4-5) had horrible luck from the floor in the first half—aside from Jones, who scored 16 of his game-high 20 points in the opening 20 minutes, no Governor hit more than one shot from the floor in the first half.

Although Austin Peay’s shooting would come around in the second half—the Govs hit 40 percent (12-for-30) from the floor over the final 20 minutes—Fort Wayne did not slow down. All five Mastodon starters finished in double figures, while the 13 made three-pointers equaled Dayton for most by an Austin Peay opponent this season.

The Difference

The Governors were simply unable to buy a bucket, particularly in the first half; Austin Peay shot 25 percent (8-for-32) from the floor and did not hit a three until the opening minute of the second half. The Govs finished the night at 32.3 percent (20-for-62), while Fort Wayne hit better than 50 percent in both halves and 50.7 percent (34-for-67) for the game.

Notably

  • Jones had his season’s second 20-point night to lead all scorers and narrowly missed his fifth double-double of the campaign, finishing with nine rebounds. It was the second time this season and fourth time in his career Jones led the Govs in scoring. He shot 7-for-14 from the floor and has shot at least 50 percent from the floor in eight of nine games in 2016-17.
  • The Govs halved Fort Wayne’s transition points from the first game (18 in the November 30th contest, nine tonight).
  • Austin Peay picked up 10 steals, the Governors third double-digit steal outing of the season; Jones and sophomore Chris Porter-Bunton each equaled their career-high with three steals each.
  • The Governors hit a season-low three shots from beyond the arc; the seven three-pointers the Govs have hit in the last two games are fewest over a two-game stretch since December 22nd-28th, 2015 against Wofford and Texas A&M Corpus Christi (seven).
  • Austin Peay hit 15-for-16 (93.8 percent) from the free-throw line, the best single-game mark since going a perfect 11-for-11 (1.000 percent) at Murray State, January 10th, 2009.
  • The five assists by Austin Peay were its fewest since a five-assist game at Tennessee State, January 14th, 2016.

Coaching Quotables

Head Coach Dave Loos

“We did a better job in transition than we did at home, but it still wasn’t good. Our shooting was one thing, but we’ve got to learn to guard people.”

“I told our guys after the game that we’re not going to get this done until we can defend and rebound. Until we learn to defend and get on the board, we’re going to have a problem.”

Up Next for the APSU Govs

Austin Peay concludes a three-game road trip with a journey to Spartanburg, SC, for a 6:00pm (CT) contest against Wofford, Thursday. Austin Peay beat the Terriers, 84-77, in the final pre-Christmas home contest a year ago behind 30 points from junior Josh Robinson.

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