APSU Sports Information
Bloomington, IN – Football coaches often talk about the greatest improvement a team makes is from Week 1 to Week 2. Austin Peay State University basketball coach Dave Loos could relate to that philosophy Monday night.
Austin Peay hung with 15th-ranked Indiana for much of the first half and the early portion of the final before the high-octane Hoosiers converted 15 consecutive shots to pull away for a 102-76 victory in opening-round action of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational.
“Tonight is something to build on,” said Loos. “Friday night we left Vanderbilt (80-41 loss) with our feelings hurt. We didn’t win tonight—they gave us a pretty good lesson—but in this game we did enough positive things to have something to build on.”Loos liked the patience the Govs showed on offense. It resulted in 29 of 60 (48 percent) shooting. They also connected on half (7 of 14) from three-point range—APSU made just one three pointer against Vandy. And the patience resulted in the Govs being credited with 15 assists—they had just one against Vanderbilt.
“We executed our plan offensively tonight; we didn’t against Vanderbilt,” Loos said.”We played to our strengths, we got it inside to (Chris) Horton a bunch. We took some time, we didn’t spend the entire night on defense like we did at Vanderbilt.”
Trailing by 12 at halftime, 51-39, the Govs opened the second half with Khalil Davis converting the conventional three-point play, and after an empty Indiana trip, Kenny Jones making it a seven-point game, causing uneasiness among the Hoosier fans.
But consecutive dunks by Thomas Bryant and Collin Hartman plus a steal and layup by All-America guard Yogi Ferrell pushed the lead to 57-44 with 17:46 left in the half. But APSU responded with a John Murry dunk (he had 14 points off the bench), cutting it to 11.
After Indiana missed its last shot for the next 12 minutes, the Govs literally handed them the first bucket in the 15-shot streak when Max Bielfeldt stepped in front of a lazy pass near midcourt to ignite the 38-22 surge that saw the Hoosiers bombard seven three pointers during the 15-made-shot stretch.
Indiana finished the game 16 of 27 (59 percent) from three-point range, including 8 of 10 in the final half.
“They just made shots,” Loos said. “They have a really good basketball team—they can really shoot it. Their guys are so athletic, their transition game is unbelievable…and they shoot it great. ”
Horton led the Govs with 17 points (8 of 13 from the floor) and 12 rebounds—his 37th career double-double. He also blocked four shots and had four assists. Khalil Davis added 15 points on an efficient 4-of-7 field goal and 7-of-8 free-throw performance.
Josh Robinson added 13 points.
In addition to be unable to stop the Indiana offense, the Governors major negative was 23 turnovers that led to 33 Hoosier points.
The Govs hope to take momentum from Monday’s performance when they play host to IP-Fort Wayne, in a 7:00pm home-opening Wednesday contest at Dave Aaron Arena.