By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – When the outside shots weren't falling, the Tennessee Tech women's basketball team pounded the paint instead. With a gutsy effort in the fourth quarter, the Golden Eagles rallied from a 51-46 deficit after three quarters and outscored Austin Peay 20-10 in the final 10 minutes to take a 66-61 victory in the Dunn Center on Thursday night.
"This was a tough and gutsy win by our players," said Tech head coach Kim Rosamond. "We talk a lot about there coming a point in every game where teams either give in or dig in, and our kids just dug in, made plays when they had to and found a way to get a big road win against a good team."
Tech improves to 6-4, 4-3 in the Ohio Valley Conference, while Austin Peay drops to 7-5, 5-3 in the league.
The Golden Eagles ended the game with 36 points in the paint to the Governors' 16, while also outscoring Peay 16-0 on fast breaks. APSU, on the other hand, outrebounded Tech 35 to 26.
"There wasn't a lot of statistical categories that we won tonight, but we came up with big stops in crucial times and had a couple of big plays offensively down the stretch especially in transition," Rosamond said.
Brandi Ferbi put the Governors up by five with 9:09 remaining in the contest, their largest lead of the period. Jada Guinn and Kesha Brady added two-point buckets to cut the Peay lead down to 54-43. Shay-Lee Kirby responded with a 3-pointer on the other end to put APSU back up by four, then Megan Clark and Maggie Knowles traded layups.
Midway through the quarter, Jordan Brock and Mackenzie Coleman put in consecutive layups to knot the score at 59 at the 4:44 mark, then Ferbi put in what ended up being Peay's final basket of the night on a layup with 3:50 remaining.
With the Governors going scoreless the rest of the way, the Golden Eagles were able to cut the deficit in half at 61-60 as Guinn hit the back end of a pair of free throws at the 2:22 mark. With 53 seconds remaining, Guinn drove in for a go-ahead layup, 62-61, and never looked back.
After the ball was knocked away from her, Coleman recovered and waited long enough to get clear to put the ball in for a layup. Twelve seconds later, following a pair of desperation fouls from Ferbi, Anna Jones went to the line and iced the game, knocking down both free throws with just one second remaining.
Brock and Jones led Tech in scoring with 15 points each, the senior scoring 12 of hers in the second half and seven in the third quarter to cut into Peay's lead. Coleman and Maaliya Owens also scored in double digits, collecting 10 points in the victory.
"We had a lot of players step up in crunch time and make plays," Rosamond said. "We had four players in double figures, played extremely unselfish, grabbed huge rebounds in the closing minutes and refused to give in even when it felt like nothing was going our way on either end. I thought Jada Guinn was a warrior with the way she handled the pressure all night, her decision making, her defensive effort and just her composure. She made big plays with the basketball, and was a difference-maker when she was on the floor."
Tech shot 52.3 percent from the field, including 35.7 percent (5-for-14) from long range and was 78.9 percent at the free-throw line, knocking down 15 of its 19 shots.
The Govs struggled from 3-point range, connecting on 11 of 31 attempts for a 35.5-percent mark. APSU was 19-for-57 from the field (33.3 percent) and was 12-for-14 (85.7 percent) at the line.
Maggie Knowles led Austin Peay with 13 points, while Ferbi added 11, and Ella Sawyer and Tahanee Bennell each scored 10.
"Austin Peay is a team that plays really hard and tries to wear you down for 40 minutes," Rosamond said. "I am really proud of the guts our team showed to fight through fatigue, especially in the last 2 minutes of the game, and to be tough enough to close this game out. We needed to build confidence on the road, and we did that tonight."
The Golden Eagles continue their three-game road trip on Saturday as they head to Murray State. Tip-off is scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
Photo | Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
