Austin Peay State University of Clarksville, Tenn., was the top-seed coming into the Ohio Valley Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament and plays in the first semi-final round game that gets underway on Friday at 6:30 p.m. EST from the Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn. The Governors (20-10) take on the No. 5 seed Samford Bulldogs (16-15) in the game. BetUS.com is offering lines on the OVC tournament and has the Governors favored by a -3 ½ point chalk with a total of 121 ½. In the nightcap, Tennessee Tech is favored by -3 ½ points (total 131 ½) in its game with Eastern Kentucky that tips-off at 9 p.m.
Austin Peay is led by sophomore Ohio Valley Conference “Player of the Year” Drake Reed. The 6-5 Clarksville, Tenn., native has been the workhorse for the Governors in the paint all season. Reed entered the week ranking 71st nationally with making 53 percent of his field goals.
Samford pulled off the first round’s lone upset, winning 70-60 at Murray State . The Bulldogs lost five straight before closing the regular season with a victory, which they followed with their first-round win. Senior Randall Gulina leads Samford, averaging 18.0 points per contest. Junior Travis Peterson and senior Jerry Smith are leading the Bulldogs in rebounding, averaging 4.9 and 4.7 rebounds per game, respectively.
Third-seeded Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (19-12) earned a trip to this weekend's Ohio Valley Conference semifinals to play Eastern Kentucky in Nashville on Tuesday night with an 88-60 victory over visiting Southeast Missouri State in a first-round tournament game in Cookeville Tenn.
The Colonels halted Tech’s eight-game winning streak with a two-point win in double overtime on Feb. 3 earning a split in the season series between the schools. The Golden Eagles have won 13 of their last 16 games as they head to Nashville. The championship game on Saturday tips off at 8:05 p.m. EST and will be televised by ESPN2. All lines and totals for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament can be found at BetUS.com.
