Austin Peay (5-12/3-1) at Belmont (10-7/2-2)
Saturday, January 16th, 2016 | 5:00pm CT
Nashville, TN | Curb Event Center
Nashville, TN – Austin Peay State University women’s basketball team will look to bounce back from its season’s first Ohio Valley Conference loss when it returns to Nashville for a 5:00pm, Saturday contest against Belmont at Curb Event Center.
Austin Peay faced a halftime deficit, 38-28, for the third straight contest.
And for the third straight game, APSU rallied to take a fourth-quarter lead, grabbing a four-point advantage with 6:19 left. However, the Govs failed to score during the final 6:19 and Tennessee State scored the game’s final 12 points to win the contest.
Nine different APSU players scored in the contest as head coach David Midlick utilized 11 players. Junior center Tearra Banks led Austin Peay with a 13-point, six-rebound performance off the bench, making 4-of-5 from the floor. Senior guard Tiasha Gray overcame a poor shooting night to finish with 14 points on 4-of-16 shooting, including 1-of-7 from three-point range.
The game at Tennessee State was the start of a difficult three-game road trip for Austin Peay. Tennessee State and Belmont – the first two teams on the road trip – own the league’s longest home win streaks at eight and seven wins, respectively. Following Saturday’s contest, APSU travels to Morehead State which has four of its six wins on its home court.
Belmont leveled its OVC record a 2-2 with an impressive 87-61 home victory against Murray State, Saturday. The Bruins started OVC action with back-to-back losses but have rebounded with two straight home wins.
Against Murray State, Belmont’s offense made 52.3 percent (34-of-65) of its shots in a wire-to-wire win. All five Bruins starters reached double-digit scoring territory, forward Kylee Smith leading the way with a 23-point, six-rebound, five-assist performance.
Austin Peay and Belmont will meet for the 14th time since 1976-77, Belmont leading the series by a slim 7-6 margin. The Bruins have won two of the three OVC regular-season meetings, the Govs breaking through for the first time in league play with last season’s 72-59 victory in Clarksville, TN.
The More You Know
Bank on Banks
Junior center Tearra Banks is in rarified air at the season’s halfway point, entering Saturday’s game ranked ninth among Division I players in field goal percentage (60.9). Only one player in APSU history has finished a season shooting better than 60 percent – Gerlonda Hardin, who accomplished the feat all four years she played at Austin Peay and finished her career shooting 61.8 percent from the floor.
Gray Milestone Watch Continues
Senior guard Tiasha Gray became only the fifth APSU women’s basketball player to reach the 1,500-point plateau with her 27-point performance at East Tennessee, December 21st:
OVC Career Steals | Currently 7th (276)
Next: 288 by Danielle Carson (YSU, 1982-86)
APSU Career Steals | Currently 1st (276)
Previous Record: 243 by Tracie Mason (1987-91)
APSU Career Points | Currently 5th (1,605)
Next: 1,805 by Shondra Maxwell (1986-90)
APSU Career Assists | Currently 3rd (444)
Next: 507 by Jeanne Hinchee (1978-82)
APSU Lady Govs Ledger
Midlick inherited an Austin Peay women’s basketball team largely unchanged from its 2014-15 edition. Four starters and 11 letterwinners return from a team that posted the program’s best record since 2010-11. Senior guard Tiasha Gray highlights the returning group after earning Ohio Valley Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors last season.
Also returning are junior Tearra Banks, sophomore Brianne Alexander, senior Jennifer Nwokocha and junior Beth Rates – composing five of the team’s top six in both scoring and rebounding.
About the Belmont Bruins
Belmont is 7-0 at the Curb Event Center this season and has averaged 83.4 points per game in its five home games against Division I teams this season. The Bruins lead all OVC teams in field-goal percentage (45.3), three-point field-goal percentage (37.7), rebounding margin (+8.7) and assists per game (17.4) and rank among Division I’s top 50 in all four categories, topped by a ninth-place ranking in three-point field goal percentage.
Freshman guard Darby Maggard leads the OVC and is ranked among the nation’s leaders in assists (42nd, 5.2 per game) and three-point field percentage (45th, 40.6 percent) entering the game.
An Austin Peay Win Would
Make Midlick 6-12 overall and 4-1 in OVC play in his first season at Austin Peay and 51-28 in his third season as a head coach overall… Make the Govs 456-661 since 1976-77 and 232-331 in OVC action.
Broadcast Information
OVC Digital Network
Presented by Belmont Athletics
Live Video: www.OVCDigitalNetwork.com
Live APSU Audio: www.LetsGoPeay.com/Listen
Live Statistics: www.PeayStats.com
