Clarksville, TN – With Austin Peay State University’s men’s basketball team entering the home stretch of its Ohio Valley Conference basketball season it is imperative they find a way to overcome a season-long difficulty of coming away with wins on the road if they are to get a favorable seed in the upcoming Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament.
Currently the Govs, 12-10 overall, are tied for third place in the OVC standings with a win-loss mark of 7-3 – tied with Jacksonville State and Tennessee Tech – with eight games left in the regular season schedule.
While their record is solid overall and in conference play, five of their final eight games left on the schedule are road contests, with the Govs only having one of their 12 wins so far this season come away from the friendly confines of the Dunn Center, coming in a 87-67 January 13th victory at Jacksonville State, where they shot 61.1 percent from the floor – the only time where they shot over 46 percent from the floor in a road contest this season.
In fact, the Govs shooting percentage overall on the road this season is one of their biggest hindrances in their lack of wins away from the Dunn Center, with APSU only hitting on 41.9 percent of their shots taken on the road – including an icy 28.2 percent from behind the three-point arc – while averaging 63.7 point per game.
Compare that to their home numbers, where they are shooting 46.9 percent from the floor, 34.5 percent from behind the arc, and averaging 81 points per game.
The only other statistic that has a measured different from home to away games is rebounding, where the Govs average 39.8 rebounds per game at home (a +9.4 over opponents) to 32.3 rebounds on the road (a -2.1 versus opponents).
The only stat where the Govs have done better on the road this season comes at the free throw line, where APSU is hitting 67.7 percent of its free throw attempts, compared to 64.1 percent at home.
So, the next two weeks and four road games (Tennessee Martin, Southeast Missouri, Murray State, Eastern Illinois) will go a long way to seeing if the Govs have a chance to earn a first-round, maybe even second-round, bye in the OVC Tournament or once again have to win four games in four straight days to earn a tournament title and a berth into the NCAA Tournament.
The OVC Tournament will be held on February 28th through March 3rd at the Ford Center in Evansville, IN.
