APSU Women’s Basketball Saturday afternoon effort came up short behind a 66-59 loss to Morehead State on Jan. 27.
Two Govs found themselves in double figures at the end of the contest.
However, a seven point deficit moved the Govs to .500 in the Ohio Valley Conference at 5-5.
Brianne Alexander led the charge for the Govs with 17 points and 11 rebounds.
The senior center recorded her second double-double of her career.
Alexander also presented an outstanding 89.7 percent from the charity stripe in the last six games.
Alexander led the teams in rebounds, followed by Keisha Gregory with nine and Falon Baker’s five.
The Govs 14 offensive rebounds and 28 defensive rebounds saw a total of 42 come up short in the battle of the boards compared to the Eagles 44.
However, the Govs did win the second chance points battle 10-9.
In addition, APSU silenced the offensive boards for MSU with only one offensive rebound in the final two quarters.
Head Coach David Midlick and the Govs found themselves down 35-30 at the midpoint break.
The Govs deficit slipped to 10 early in the third quarter.
However, a 10-2 run saw the Govs within three at the end of the quarter.
“I thought we got stops and only gave up one offensive rebound the whole second half,” Midlick said to letsgopeay.com, “I thought we played good enough defense to give ourselves a chance in the second half.”
Morehead State quickly responded by putting the lead back to eight in the first 35 seconds of the third quarter.
The Eagles used an Alexander turnover and foul to put themselves back ahead.
Morehead State found 15 points of turnovers and 10 fast break points in their win.
The Govs had trouble overcoming the minimal score gaps when they could only generate seven points off turnovers and seven points on the fast break.
The closest the Govs could bring the score margin down to after that was four as they were outscored in the fourth quarter 18-14.
APSU’s loss moves them to 12-9 on the season, and a tie for sixth place in the OVC standings. APSU is tied with Southeast Missouri in conference.
The Govs have eight games left on their schedule as the conference race heats up.
The Govs continue the postseason push with a four-game road trip.
“We have to get better for three straight days before we head to UT Martin, and we will obviously prepare for what they do offensively and defensively,” Midlick said to letsgopeay.com. “We have some things to clean up.”
The Govs will return to the hardwood at UT Martin (10-12, 6-4 OVC) on Thursday, Feb. 1 at 5:30 p.m.