APSU Women’s basketball stunned league leaders Tennessee Tech 72-65 on Thursday, Jan. 31.
Entering the contest, the Golden Eagles set in a two-team tie on top of Ohio Valley Conference while the Govs were trapped at .500 in the conference and struggling on the road.
Following the 40 minutes, the Govs had earned their first back-to-back road wins of the season, a stat they were plagued by on a 0-8 road start, and Tennessee Tech was dealt their first home loss of the 2018-19 season.
Brianah Ferby put in a star effort for Head Coach Dave Midlick’s side, knocking down 20 points, a season high for the sophomore guard, 15 of those coming in the second half.
“Bri didn’t start and she would be the first to tell you that she was struggling offensively, but she had an outstanding game. She was aggressive and took shots when she needed to,” Midlick told letsgopeay.com. “She also had big steals and two big free throws at the end.”
Ferby shot 72.7 percent from the field, a game high for both teams. Keisha Gregory, Ari Gonzalez-Varner and Neija Crawford all finished in double figures for APSU with 15, 14 and 10 points respectively.
As well as the Govs produced from the floor, the killer blows came from APSU hitting their last nine free throws.
“I think making free throws at the end was huge because we made some mistakes during their comeback, but overall, to come in here against a really good team and compete for 40 minutes,” Midlick told letsgopeay.com. “It was just a great team victory.”
With 25 trips to the line, APSU sunk 84 percent of their shots. Midlick’s squad hit 14 of their final 16 free throws.
The rarity for the Govs was seeing Gregory miss two of her charity stripe efforts. The senior guard is shooting 92.9 percent at the free-throw line, a stat good enough for first in the OVC and second in the nation.
APSU’s success continued on from how well they preformed at the line. With 40 rebounds, the Govs tacked their highest amount of road rebounds this campaign.
On the defensive end, Tennessee Tech was uncharacteristically stagnant. Going against the hosts’s favor, Jordan Brock, the Golden Eagles leading scorer was held to 11 points in the contest, nine of those came from the second half.
With the win, APSU moved to 5-4 in the OVC, but now sit at 5-5 after the weekend.
The Govs are back at home for their next contest, a Thursday night rematch with SIU Edwardsville at 5:30 p.m.
