Athens, OH – The Austin Peay State University (APSU) basketball team outscored Ohio by seven in the second half but was unable to erase an early deficit and fell to the Bobcats 78-58 Wednesday at the Convocation Center.
Sai Witt led Austin Peay State University (4-7) in scoring with 21 points – his second-straight 20-point performance – while Tate McCubbin followed him in scoring with a career-best 11 points and a team-best five rebounds.
Ohio led 20-5 through the opening seven minutes after connecting on five three-pointers to begin the game before layups by Quan Lax and JaVar Daniel cut the Bobcats’ advantage to 11 with 11:30 remaining. A pair of OU jumpers were answered by Anton Brookshire’s second three-pointer of the opening 12 minutes, to trim the Bobcats’ advantage to 24-13.
Sai Witt scored five-straight Austin Peay State University points, but the Bobcats responded with a quartet of free throws and its seventh three-pointer of the half.
Darius Dawson corralled his own miss and laid it in for his first make of the evening, but the second-chance layup was the Govs’ final points of the opening 20 minutes, as the Bobcats scored 11 unanswered points to lead 49-22 entering the break.
Terrell Gaines and Witt scored APSU’s first 11 points of the second half, as Gaines answered a Bobcats’ three-pointer with his first-carer triple, which was answered by a Witt layup.
McCubbin hit a pair of threes midway through the second period, with the later triple trimming the Govs’ deficit to 22 points with 9:59 remaining. The Govs’ next seven points came from the charity stripe, as APSU scored nine-straight points between 4:57-0:54, but ultimately fell to the Bobcats 78-58.
Box Score Bullets
Austin Peay State University fell to 2-4 all-time against Ohio and 1-2 against the Bobcats in Athens, Ohio.
APSU is 1-1 all-time in Athens.
Sai Witt led Austin Peay State University in scoring for the second-straight game with 21 points. Witt’s point total is the Govs’ eighth 20-point game of the season.
Tate McCubbin scored in double figures for the second time this season and first since scoring 10 points at East Tennessee State on November 30th.
Tate McCubbin led the APSU Govs in rebounds for the second time this season with five boards.
Terrell Gaines played a career-best 20 minutes and scored a career-best six points, which included his career’s first three-pointer.
The Governors used their ninth different starting five of the season with Sai Witt, Isaac Haney, Akili Evans, Anton Brookshire, and Quan Lax taking the court first for Austin Peay.
Quan Lax extended his team-best starting streak to 11 games against Ohio.
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Next Up For APSU Men’s Basketball
The Austin Peay State University men’s basketball team returns to the Volunteer State for a Saturday 2:00pm game against Vanderbilt in Nashville. The outing against the Commodores is APSU’s penultimate game of nonconference play, as it then turns its attention to a December 29th 4:00pm game against Brescia in F&M Bank Arena.
