APSU Lady Govs Basketball loses to Wichita State at Winter Classic

Wichita, Kansas – Austin Peay State University women’s basketball team ran into a streaking Wichita State squad and came out on the short end of an 86-64 loss, Saturday, in the Wichita State Winter Classic at Koch Arena.

Wichita State (8-2) scored the game’s first seven points and made its first four shots to open an early 11-2 lead just three minutes into the game. The Shockers would go on to make 13 of their first 16 shots before missing back-to-back attempts for the first time in the game.

At the end of that streak, Wichita State held its first 16-point advantage 35-19, with 6:59 left.

Austin Peay (3-8) would chip into that lead during a three minute stretch where it made 4-of-6 from the floor. Freshman April Rivers and sophomore Tiasha Gray each had two baskets as part of the 9-2 run that saw the Lady Govs cut the deficit to nine points with 3:02 left.

However, Wichita State closed the half with a 7-0 run to push the lead back to 16 points, 44-28, at halftime. The Shockers continued the run after the break, as Michaela Dapprich scored the second half’s first five points to extend the lead to 21 points with 18:18 left in the game.

The Lady Govs battled back again piecing together a 9-3 run with junior Kristen Stainback supplying five points and freshmen Beth Rates and Tearra Banks each adding a basket. That burst trimmed the deficit to 15 points with 13:54 left, but that was as close as Austin Peay would get.

Wichita State made its next six shots and eight of nine as part of an 18-9 run that pushed the lead out to 24 points, 72-48, with 8:45 remaining and it would not be threated the game’s remainder.

The Lady Govs defense ran into another hot-shooting squad, Wichita State shooting 60.7 percent in the first half and only slightly cooling to 56.1 percent for the game. The Shockers made 6-of-13 (46.2 percent) of their three pointers in the contest.

Banks led Austin Peay with a 17-point, 12-rebound performance, her second double-double outing this season. Stainback added a season-best 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Rivers finished with 14 points.

Wichita State’s Michaela Dapprich led all scorers with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including a 3-of-3 three-point effort. Alex Harden finished with 15 points.

Austin Peay concludes its stay in Wichita with a noon, Sunday contest against Omaha. The Mavericks defeated Texas-Pan America 73-61 in Saturday’s first game.