CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The Spalding University men's basketball team lost to Austin Peay, 82-63, late Saturday evening at the Dunn Center in Clarksville, Tenn. The loss drops Spalding to 1-3 on the season, while Austin Peay, a NCAA Division I team, improves to 4-2.
Rylan Rowe led the Golden Eagles with 20 points going 7-of-14 from the field, including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.
James Turner also had a solid showing scoring 12 points and passed out a team-high six assists.
Dominique Ellis and
Nick Trisko also finished in double-figures. Ellis had 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting and Trisko scored 10 points while hauling in a team-high eight rebounds. Josh Robinson led Austin Peay with 20 points and seven assists.
The Golden Eagles came out of the gate red hot hitting their first five shots to take an early nine-point lead. Ellis and Rowe combined for all 13 of SU's points. Ellis knocked down a jumper on the Spalding's first possession to tie the game 2-2, Rowe scored eight straight points to make the score 10-4, and Ellis capped of the run with a three-pointer pushing SU's lead to 13-4 at the 17:35 mark. The Govs answered with a 10-0 run takin a 14-13 lead on a Jared Savage layup with just over 14 minutes to play. The Golden Eagles responded with back-to-back three-pointers by Rowe and Turner to pull back in front 19-16 and would lead until the 8:42 mark in the first half when Robinson hit a three pointer to give AP a 22-21 lead. From there, Austin-Peay strung together nine consecutive points pushing their margin to 10 points with 5:22 remaining. An and-one by
James Turner would cut the Govs lead to seven at 33-26, they would outscore Spalding 13-6 to end the half and SU would trail 46-32 at halftime.
Nick Trisko opened the second half with a layup jumpstarting a 7-2 Spalding spurt to get the Golden Eagles within single digits following a
Rylan Rowe floater the cut lead to 48-39. Robinson knifed to the rim on Austin Peay's next possession and the Governors would start to pull away eventually extending their lead to a game-high, 24 points on a John Murray layup with 4:17 to play. Another Ellis three-pointer and a nice two-handed dunk from
James Turner would cut the deficit to 19 points. An Assane Diop dunk would push the lead back to 21, but freshman
Kobe Drake got loose for a layup on the break to make the final score, 82-63.
Up next, the Golden Eagles will open conference play with a road game at Principia on Tuesday. Tipoff is slated for 9 pm EST.
