Antelopes Battle Hard in Road Loss at Austin Peay

Saturday, November 22

Clarksville, TN

10 a.m.

Grand Canyon

1-2

Austin Peay

1-2

Grand Canyon

Austin Peay

Courtney Hayes had 10 of her 16 points in a late second-half run in Saturday's 84-77 loss at Austin Peay.

Photo by: Darryl Webb

11/22/2014 3:19:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Grand Canyon knocked a 15-point second-half deficit down to four, but were unable complete its comeback in an 84-77 loss to Austin Peay at Dunn Center in Clarksville, Tenn., Saturday.

GCU led in the first half, thanks to 53.3 percent shooting from the field, but the Governors were nearly as accurate, hitting 51.5 percent of their shots in the first 20 minutes. Austin Peay finished the game 9-of-16 from 3-point range. Unfortunately for the Lopes, they shot only 33.3 percent (12-of-36) in the second and hit just 11-of-18 free throws.

The Antelopes out-rebounded Austin Peay 41-39.

"I'm proud of our effort and fight," said GCU coach Trent May. "We waited too long to attack the basket and settled on shots that were not falling for us. We got good looks but sometimes you got to find the higher percentage opportunities.

"It was a tough day but we still did some thing's really well."

For the second time this season, sophomore August Touchard was the Lopes leading scorer. She had 18 Saturday, including a career-best five 3-pointers. Junior point guard Courtney Hayes had 16 points to go with four assists, five rebounds and two steals. Off the bench, sophomore Astrea Reed scored 13 points and grabbed seven rebounds. Sophomore Cheyenne Hedrington had her second double-figure rebound game of the season, leading all rebounders with 13. She added nine points.

When frosh Arin Perry scored with 10:58 left in the first half, GCU led 22-18. The Lopes last lead was at 27-26 at the 8:09 mark on a 3-pointer from redshirt-freshman Jessica Gajewski.

Trailing 70-56 with 6:57 to go, GCU cut it to 77-73 with 2:44 remaining. Ten of GCU's 17 points of its 17-7 run came from Hayes.

The Antelopes continue their road trip and play Nov. 28-29 at the Navy Classic in Annapolis, Md. GCU takes on Northern Kentucky (4 p.m., AZ time) on Nov. 28 and host Navy (1:30 pm) on Nov. 29.

APSU 84, GCU 77