Turnovers troubles lead to Govs demise in home loss to Fairfield

By Chris Austin | December 2, 2012 |

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Austin Peay State University’s men’s basketball team was bumped and banged into 21 turnovers, which was turned into 28 points by Fairfield, as the Govs dropped a 74-55 decision to the Stags Saturday night at the Dunn Center.

In a rematch of a 2010 BracketBuster contest played in Bridgeport, Conn., the Govs (3-4) were taken out of their offensive flow early on, as the Stags used their physical east-coast style of defense to make Austin Peay feel it had to rush its offense – which in turn lead to turnovers that cost them 28 points; including 18 coming in fast-break chances compared to just two points for Austin Peay.

“Turnovers are what shows up on the stat sheet, but I think what really caused a lot of the turnovers was a lack of mental toughness,” Austin Peay coach Dave Loos said. “Fairfield came out and played some pretty good defense, got after us and we got impatient and got pushed out of our plan with our offense.

“We rush things and try to do too much off the dribble and as a result we didn’t get a lot of good looks and turned the ball over 21 times.”

Fairfield (4-4) on the other hand turned the ball over only nine times – including two coming in the waning minutes, as the Stags were empting their bench.

“You have to recognize how the game is being played and get with it,” Loos said. “A little bit of that from us would have gone a long way, but we didn’t pay that way tonight.

“This should be a real learning experience for us. If we didn’t get a wake-up call tonight, then something is seriously wrong.”

Austin Peay trailed by eight points, 36-28, at halftime, but got to within four points, 48-44 with 11:28 left in the game following a layup by freshman AJ Lynch.

But the Govs would go the next 4:13 without a point, while Fairfield ran off 10 points to extend its lead out to the largest margin of the night, 14 points, to lead 58-44 with 7:12 left in the game.

“I thought we were back in it at 48-44, it was just a matter who wanted it more the rest of the way,” Loos said. “But we couldn’t get into our offense, because we weren’t playing together tonight with our screening and ball movement in the frontcourt and as a result we never got anything going.”

Austin Peay wouldn’t get any closer than 11 points, 58-47, the rest of the way, while Fairfield led by as many as 23 points in the second half before settling for the 19-point victory.

Five Stags scored in double figures, led by Derek Needham, who had 12 points to go with nine assists. Freshman Josip Mikulic came off the bench to add 11 points, as Fairfield’s bench outscored the Govs 36-6.

Travis Betran led the Governors with a game-high 17 points, while Will Triggs added 11 and Anthony Campbell 10. Freshman Chris Horton led the Govs with eight rebounds, as the Govs outrebounded the Stags 29-26.

Austin Peay shot 43.9 percent from the floor, but the turnover troubles allowed APSU to take only 41 shots compared to Fairfield’s 59.

Austin Peay will return to action on Wednesday, 7 p.m., as it concludes its three-game home stand with a non-conference contest versus Oakland City.

Fairfield 74, Austin Peay 55

Records: Fairfield 4-4, Austin Peay 3-4.

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