Austin Peay (6-4) at Campbell (5-5)
Friday, December 21st, 2018 | 1:30pm CT
St. Petersburg, FL | McArthur Center
Clarksville, TN – Vengeance will be Austin Peay State University (APSU) men’s basketball team’s utmost priority when the Govs open the St. Pete Shootout against Campbell this Friday, December 21st, at Eckerd College’s McArthur Center. Tip off is at 1:30pm.
Austin Peay will have an ace in the hole this time around.
Sophomore Terry Taylor, who was held to “just” 17 points and 10 rebounds and committed an uncharacteristically high five turnovers in the previous meeting against the Camels, is coming in off a career-high 32 points in Austin Peay’s 95-68 win against Purdue Fort Wayne last weekend, earning Ohio Valley Conference and Tennessee Sports Writers Association Men’s Basketball Player of the Week for his efforts.
This is the first of two contests for the Govs in this pre-Christmas event; pending results, Austin Peay plays either Liberty or Alabama State on Saturday before returning home.
About the Campbell Camels
Chris Clemons is the engine for Campbell, as the Govs have already seen. He scored 34 points in the previous matchup, followed it up with 45 points on the road against Georgetown and will have even more motivation this weekend, as he stands just 25 points short of owning the Big South career scoring record.
While the Clemons-vs.-Taylor battle of marquee players will certainly be captivating, ball control may ultimately be the great deciding factor here. Despite Austin Peay owning slight advantages in steals per game (9.9-to-8.6) and turnover margin (4.2-to-3.5), Campbell had the upper hand in turnover margin (15-18), with Taylor committing a career-high five of those miscues.
Last Time Out Against Campbell
Solid shooting and a rebounding advantage were not enough to overcome Chris Clemons. The nation’s leading scorer put up 34 points and was buoyed by Cory Gensler, who put up 25 of his own–a height he hasn’t reached before or since in 2018-19–in a 78-72 win in Montego Bay.
The Govs were 8-of-8 at the charity stripe and hit better than 50 percent from the floor, but where the Camels turned 18 Austin Peay turnovers into 24 points, whereas the Governors were able to wring just 13 points out of 15 Campbell miscues. The victory also gave Campbell the Rose Hall Division crown in MoBay.
Keep An Eye On
A win would move the Govs to 4-0 in December for the first time since 2009-10.
Senior Zach Glotta needs 13 three-pointers to move into the top-10 all-time for the Govs.
Taylor is one of three underclassmen in the country with five or more double-doubles, alongside Wright State’s Loudon Love and Murray State’s Ja Morant.
Glotta has secured 15 steals in his last four outings—a full one-fifth of his career total (75).
Taylor is one of eight players in the country currently averaging four or more offensive rebounds per game.
A win would be Austin Peay’s first in the state of Florida since 1982 (December 1st at Bethune-Cookman).
Since a 28.6 percent (6-of-21) performance beyond the arc in the first meeting with Campbell, Austin Peay is averaging 8.4 three-pointers per game on 40.0 percent (42-of-105) shooting.
Not to go back to the same well too many times, but Glotta is one of just two players in the country in the top-20 in three-point field goal percentage (18th, 49.2 percent) and free-throw percentage (4th, 96.3 percent), along with Nevada’s Jazz Johnson (third in three-point percentage, 11th in free-throw percentage).
APSU Govs Online
Check back at LetsGoPeay.com and on Austin Peay’s Official Athletics Facebook page often for up-to-date news about all Governor athletics, as well as the Governor men’s basketball Twitter page (@AustinPeayMBB). Live stats will be available during the game at PeayStats.com, and all home games and Ohio Valley Conference games (which return January 3rd) can be viewed on the ESPN+ app.
Postgame video interviews and other videos from around APSU Athletics can be found on our YouTube page (www.youtube.com/letsgopeay).
