In the first time the Govs basketball team has been to the Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament since 2012, they got their first win over the Tennessee Tech University Golden Eagles 92-72.
Midway through the first half, junior guard Thomas Shirmane of the Golden Eagles committed a hard foul on a dunk attempt by sophomore guard Khalil Davis resulting in a technical foul for Shirmane and sophomore guard Josh Robinson who was called for the tech after the initial foul.
The Govs held a small lead for almost the entirety of the first half as the Golden Eagles fought to get ahead.
The turning point was when the clock wound down to the five minute mark of the first half, the Governors began to pull away with the lead and never looked back.
Chris Horton slammed a monster dunk with just over four minutes remaining in the first to put the Govs up by nine.
This dunk was one of many from Horton and his teammates during the game along with a few alley-oops to get the fans on their feet and send a message to the Golden Eagles and all the teams in the tournament that the Govs meant business.
By the end of the half, the Govs were up by 12 with a halftime score of 47-35. This was only the beginning of what they had in store for the second half.
Coming out of the first half, the Govs showed no signs of slowing down, increasing their lead to 25 points by the 13:00 mark.
Horton, who made the All-OVC team this season, continued to be the standout player of the game reaching 30 points by just under the nine minute mark of the second half and finished the game with a career high of 37 points and 21 rebounds. Horton’s only downfall were his trips to the line in the first half which he cleaned up in the second finishing 11-18.
The Golden Eagles began to tighten up on defense with less than seven minutes remaining, but it didn’t seem to faze sophomore guard Josh Robinson as he maneuvered his way through the half court press on each of their trap attempts.
A powerful alley-oop from Robinson to Horton with less than two minutes remaining would put the final nail in the coffin and the fans on their feet as the Governors went on to defeat the Golden Eagles by 20, 92-72.
