CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — For three quarters of a half, Austin Peay State University’s women’s basketball team kept No. 8 Louisville within reach, Thursday at the Dunn Center, but in the end the Cardinals had too much firepower and pulled away for a 90-52 win.
The loss was the Lady Govs 18 straight against a nationally-ranked team.
Austin Peay (0-2) only trailed Louisville by six points, 33-27, with 6:30 left in the opening half, but the Cardinals closed out the half on a 15-6 run to take a 15-point advantage into intermission 48-33.
“Louisville is ranked number eight in the nation for a reason,” Austin Peay coach Carrie Daniels said. “We knew coming in to be competitive in the game we were going to have to play a great ball game for 40 minutes and we didn’t do that.
“We came out early and knocked down some shots that we needed to knock down and our defense was pretty good, but in the second half we just kind of fell flat.”
After a three from Lady Govs senior Leslie Martinez – who led Austin Peay with 14 points — made it 52-38 with 17:52 left in the game, Louisville (3-0) went on a 17-0 run over the next 6:48 to put any chance of an Austin Peay comeback out or reach by going up 69-38 with 11:04 left in the game.
“We talked at halftime about how our intensity was going to have to rise up and have a lot more pressure and be aggressive,” Daniels said. “But we came out completely flat and the game got away from us.
“You can’t come out flat like that against any team, let alone the No. 8-ranked team in the country.”
Austin Peay wouldn’t get any closer than 29 points the rest of the way, with the Lady Govs only shooting 25 percent from the floor in the second half, while Louisville extended its lead out to as many as 44 points before Austin Peay cut the final margin back to 38 points, 90-52.
Monique Reid led the Cardinals with 14 points, while Shawnta’ Dyer and Shoni Schimmell added 12 points each. Schimmell also recorded 10 assists.
One of the bright spots for Austin Peay in the loss was the rebounding of senior Kaitlyn Hill, who led all players with a career-high tying 13 rebounds, despite the fact that the Lady Govs were out rebounded for the game 46-30.
“I thought Kaitlyn did a tremendous job on the boards,” Daniels said. “The bad thing was she didn’t have a whole lot of help.
“We’ve got to get some other people to help her on the boards and that’s been a struggle for us, but she did a great job and was very aggressive.”
Austin Peay will wrap up its two-game home stand on Sunday, 2 p.m., as it hosts Binghamton.
Louisville 90, Austin Peay 52
Louisville 48-42—90
Austin Peay 33-19—52
Louisville: Monique Reid 14, Shelby Harper 4, Shoni Schimmel 12, Antonita Slaughter 9, Sheronne Vails 8, Shawnta Dyer 12, Jude Schimmel 4, Bria Smith 8, Sara Hammond 6, Megan Deines 6, Cortnee Walton 7. Team totals 34 15-23 90.
Austin Peay: Leslie Martinez 14, Kaitlyn Hill 9, Meghan Bussabarger 3, Nicole Olszewski 9, Kristen Stainback 8, Shelby Olszewski 4, Jennifer Nwokocha 3, Alexis Hardaway 2. Team totals 18 9-17 52.
3-point field goals: Louisville 7 (Deines 2, S. Schimmel 2, Slaughter 3), Austin Peay 7 (Martinez 3, Bussabarger 1, Stainback 1, N. Olszewski 2).
Records: Louisville 3-0, Austin Peay 0-2.
No. 8 Louisville at APSU Photo Gallery
About James D. Horne 
James D. Horne began his writing career at the Carrollton Missouri Democrat in 1995, and was the assistant sports editor/writer for the Hammond Louisiana Daily Star for two years. In 1998, Horne became the Missouri Basketball beat writer for the Columbia Daily Tribune. He joined The Leaf-Chronicle in Oct. 2003 as the lead prep writer and became the Austin Peay beat writer in March of 2005. During his career he won a state association sports writing award at the Daily Star and two while at the Leaf-Chronicle.
Originally from Tampa, Florida, Horne earned his B.A in communications from Central Methodist University in Fayette Missouri.
Web Site: http://www.clarksvillesportsnetwork.com
Email:
james@clarksvillesportsnetwork.com
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Austin Peay State University, Featured Story, NCAA, Ohio Valley Conference, Schools, Sports
Topics
Alexis Hardaway, APSU, Austin Peay State University, Basketball, Carrie Daniels, Clarksville, Clarksville Sports Network, Govs, Jennifer Nwokocha, Kaitlyn Hill, Kristen Stainback, Lady govs, Leslie Martinez, Meghan Bussabarger, NCAA, Nicole Olszewski, Shelby Olszewski
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