Fifty seconds into APSU first road game of their 2018-19 Ohio Valley Conference campaign Steve Harris’s layup put the Govs on the board. Head Coach Matt Figger’s team never looked back over the next 39 minutes and 10 seconds. The Govs toppled the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks 78-60 at the ShowMe Center on Thursday, Jan. 10 to move to 11-5 on the season and 3-0 in the OVC.
The Govs shot 52.5 percent from the floor, over 10 percent more than the hosts. Adding to APSU’s offensive execution, the team went an outstanding 8-9 from the stripe for an 88 percent performance.
However, the Govs were not alone on their trip to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, as a following supporting section of Gov fans saw the one-sided affair first hand.
“It’s the best, (hearing), “Let’s Go Peay.” A coach once told me he preferred playing on the road, he preferred the silence over the boos, but I prefer hearing that, “Let’s Go Peay,” Figger told letsgopeay.com.
The Govs scoring was charged by Terry Taylor’s 17 point performance. Harris finished with 12 while Jarrett Givens and Zach Glotta tallied 11 points each to put four Govs into double figures. The Govs went 8-for-21 behind the arch for, improving on their 7.4 average on 3-pointers this season.
With Givens and Glotta supplying the efforts from farther out, the interior of the court opened up for players like Taylor, Harris and Jabari McGhee to do damage in the paint.
Southeast Missouri’s bright spot came in the form of Skyler Hogan and a 16-point performance. The Redhawks at times found runs that kept the team around but could never overtake the Govs lead.
“I didn’t want to put any panic in our guys. You’re on the road, teams are going to go on runs, it happens. You’ve got to be able to play through them, you’ve got to be able to answer,” Figger told letsgopeay.com. “[Jarrett] Givens hit a big three in the corner that put us back up 16 and that was it.”
However, Hogan’s night could not control the outcome and the Redhawks could not control the ball.
Southeast Missouri turned the ball over 17 times. Four of those coming from Sage Tolbert and Alex Caldwell respectively. The Govs totaled four eight steals on the evening, Givens lead all 23 players that saw the court with three. The Govs totaled 22 points off of turnovers while the Redhawks only measled nine points off of APSU’s 14 turnovers.
APSU cleaned up the Redhawks boards with 20 defensive rebounds, limiting Southeast Missouri to 11 second-chance points.
The Govs stay on the road for their fifth OVC contest of the season with SIU Edwardsville on Thursday, Jan. 17.
