APSU Sports: Austin Peay Women’s Basketball
Clarksville, TN – Entering Saturday night’s game against Morehead State, Lady Govs head coach Carrie Daniels knew she would need to receive special performances from some of her players to capture a victory.
Luckily for Daniels, she didn’t received just one career performance. She received two.
Leslie Martinez scored a career-high 20 points and reserve Shira Buley added eight points of her career-high 10 points in overtime as the suddenly-hot Lady Govs grabbed an 88-81 victory over Morehead State.
The Eagles would tie the game at 76-76 with 10.3 seconds remaining on Courtney Lumpkin’s off-balance 3-pointer.
On the ensuing possession, Whitney Hanley drove the length of the court before launching a floater that appeared to briefly drop before rimming out as time expired.
“It looked like it was going to be good to all of us,” Daniels said. “Even one of the referees came over to the bench and said ‘I thought it was in’.”
After surrendering the first two points of the overtime period, the Lady Govs went on a 7-0 run over the next three minutes, racing out to an 85-78 lead that the Eagles could never match.
“Coach told us to go out there and be aggressive and play solid defense (in overtime),” Martinez said. “We could kind of tell they were getting a bit winded. We really wanted to push the tempo.”
As the overtime period went along, the cheers seemed to grow louder and louder for Buley, who scored five straight points as the Lady Govs extended their lead to 85-78 with just over a minute to play.
In all, the Knoxville native finished 3-of-5 from the floor but converted 4-of-6 shots at the line to help preserve the win for the Lady Govs.
“I could everyone on the bench and on the court calling my name and cheering a bit,” a smiling Buley said after the game. “I was ready to go out there and show everyone what I can do. I was ready to step up and make plays for my team.”
After posting a career-high 15 points in Monday’s win over Murray State, Martinez came up big again for the Lady Govs, adding 14 rebounds to go along with her 20 markers.
“She was such a spark for us tonight,” Daniels said. “It’s been that way all eyar but tonight she was really special.”
Playing against a trapping defense that forced 21 Lady Govs turnovers in the first meeting between the two teams, the Lady Govs performed much better, Daniels said, despite finishing with 18 giveaways.
“It was a tremendous improvement,” Daniels said. “We still made some mistakes out there but I thought we got a lot of quick baskets as a result of attacking their press.”
Whitney Hanley finished with 22 points on 7-of-17 shooting to lead all scorers.
Forwards Kaitlyn Hill and Meghan Bussabarger added 13 and eight points for the Lady Govs in the victory.
The Lady Govs got off to a quick start, sprinting out to an early 8-2 lead before the Eagles responded with a 11-0 run to take a 13-8 lead.
The Eagles would extend their lead to 26-16 just over midway through the first half, but the Lady Govs responded with a 23-13 run down the stretch to tie the game at 39-39 at halftime.
In the second half, the Lady Govs would take control early, racing out to a 51-46 lead with 15:23 to play.
“This was a tournament-like game tonight,” Eagles head coach Tom Hodges said. “Austin Peay has been playing really well.”
Daniels echoed Hodges’ comments.
“We are battling to get in the tournament and they are battling for seeding,” Daniels said. “In many ways this game did have a tournament feel to it. They fought us all game long.”
Lumpkin finished with 29 to lead the Eagles (9-17, 6-8) in scoring.
With the win, the Lady Govs won consecutive games for the first time since back-to-back victories over Eastern Kentucky and Murray State on January 2nd and January 7th.
The win also snapped a five-game home losing streak for the Lady Govs.
More importantly, the win kept the Lady Govs in the hunt for the final berth in the upcoming OVC conference tournament.
Coupled with Southeast Missouri’s loss to Tennessee-Martin Saturday night, the Govs pulled a full game ahead of the RedHawks in the race for the OVC’s final conference tournament berth.
With Saturday’s results, the Lady Govs forced, at the very worst, a virtual elimination game against the Redhawks in the regular-season finale on February 25th.
With a win next Thursday at UT Martin and a Southeast Missouri loss at Jacksonville State, however, the Lady Govs could clinch their tournament berth before Senior Night.
Box Score
Morehead State vs Austin Peay
2/18/12 -5:15pm at Clarksville, TN (Dunn Center)
Morehead State 81
| Total | 3-point | Rebounds | ||||||||||||
| ## | Player | p | fgm-fga | fgm-fga | ftm-fta | off-def | tot | pf | tp | a | to | blk | stl | min |
| 05 | HARRIS, Ashar | f | 4-6 | 0-0 | 1-5 | 2-13 | 15 | 4 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 43 |
| 45 | ARLEDGE, Mackenzie | f | 2-3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1-5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 30 |
| 04 | JONES, Almesha | g | 2-3 | 0-1 | 4-4 | 2-2 | 4 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 39 |
| 21 | DIXON, Linda | g | 4-8 | 1-3 | 0-2 | 0-1 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
| 25 | LUMPKIN, Courtney | g | 9-20 | 4-8 | 7-10 | 1-1 | 2 | 4 | 29 | 4 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 44 |
| 11 | ROBINSON, Terrice | – | 3-11 | 1-5 | 1-1 | 0-1 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 30 |
| 13 | TURNER, Allie | – | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 1-0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 20 | ITUEN, Tyler | – | 2-3 | 0-0 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 32 | HENRY, Ashley | – | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0+ |
| 42 | PERRY, Kristin | – | 3-5 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 1-0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 |
| TM | TEAM | – | – | – | – | 2-1 | 3 | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – |
| Totals………….. | – | 29-60 | 6-20 | 17-27 | 10-24 | 34 | 29 | 81 | 15 | 18 | 2 | 9 | 225 | |
| 48.3% | 30.0% | 63.0% | ||||||||||||
| Team summary: | FG | 3FG | FT | |||||||||||
| 1st Half: | 15-31 | 2-10 | 7-11 | |||||||||||
| 48.4% | 20.0% | 63.6% | ||||||||||||
| 2nd Half: | 14-24 | 4-9 | 5-10 | |||||||||||
| 58.3% | 44.4% | 50.0% | ||||||||||||
| Overtime: | 0-5 | 0-1 | 5-6 | |||||||||||
| 0.0% | 0.0% | 83.3% | ||||||||||||
Austin Peay 88
| Total | 3-point | Rebounds | ||||||||||||
| ## | Player | p | fgm-fga | fgm-fga | ftm-fta | off-def | tot | pf | tp | a | to | blk | stl | min |
| 14 | MARTINEZ, Leslie | f | 8-13 | 0-1 | 4-5 | 4-10 | 14 | 4 | 20 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 37 |
| 42 | HILL, Kaitlyn | c | 5-6 | 0-0 | 3-3 | 2-2 | 4 | 4 | 13 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| 05 | OLSZEWSKI, Nicole | g | 1-3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 18 |
| 12 | HANLEY, Whitney | g | 7-17 | 1-5 | 7-8 | 1-3 | 4 | 5 | 22 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 44 |
| 44 | OLSZEWSKI, Shelby | g | 1-4 | 0-2 | 4-6 | 1-2 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 41 |
| 00 | RAYNER, Jasmine | – | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
| 03 | BULEY, Shira | – | 3-5 | 0-1 | 4-6 | 1-3 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 27 |
| 04 | STAINBACK, Kristen | – | 1-3 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 1-0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| 43 | BUSSABARGER, Meghan | – | 3-7 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 0-3 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 34 |
| TM | TEAM | – | – | – | – | 1-2 | 3 | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – |
| Totals………….. | – | 30-61 | 1-11 | 27-34 | 12-27 | 39 | 22 | 88 | 11 | 18 | 0 | 5 | 225 | |
| 49.2% | 9.1% | 79.4% | ||||||||||||
| Team summary: | FG | 3FG | FT | |||||||||||
| 1st Half: | 14-34 | 0-8 | 11-13 | |||||||||||
| 41.2% | 0.0% | 84.6% | ||||||||||||
| 2nd Half: | 13-22 | 1-2 | 10-12 | |||||||||||
| 59.1% | 50.0% | 83.3% | ||||||||||||
| Overtime: | 3-5 | 0-1 | 6-9 | |||||||||||
| 60.0% | 0.0% | 66.7% | ||||||||||||
| Score by Periods | 1st | 2nd | OT | Total | |
| Morehead State | 39 | 37 | 5 | 81 | Record: (9-17, 6-8 OVC) |
| Austin Peay | 39 | 37 | 12 | 88 | Record: (7-20, 4-10 OVC) |
| Points in the paint-MOR 34,APSU 38. Points off turnovers-MOR 18,APSU 22. |
| 2nd chance points-MOR 16,APSU 17. Fast break points-MOR 8,APSU 15. |
| Bench points-MOR 22,APSU 25. Score tied-8 times. Lead changed-7 times. |
| Last FG-MOR 2nd-00:13, APSU OT-01:04. |
| Largest lead-MOR by 10 1st-10:23, APSU by 7 OT-01:04. |
| Officials: Charlie Hust (R), Bryan Nichols, Kerry Henson Technical fouls: Morehead State-HARRIS, Ashar. Austin Peay-MARTINEZ, Leslie. Attendance: 875 Copies in a Flash Player of the Game: Shira Buley |
