Austin Peay beats Eastern Illinois 69-60 for OVC title

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Nicole Jamen scored 19 points and Austin Peay beat Eastern Illinois 69-60 for the Ohio Valley Conference tournament title Saturday and a second straight automatic berth in the NCAA tournament.

The Lady Govs (15-17) clinched their seventh tournament title, second only to Tennessee Tech's league-best nine, with their fourth straight victory.

The Panthers (23-10) came in off a regular-season title and were playing in the tournament championship for the third straight season, a rematch of last year's title game when Austin Peay needed double overtime to down Eastern Illinois.

Ashley Herring had 15 for Austin Peay, Jasmine Rayner and Whitney Hanley each added 12 and Brooke Faulkner scored 10.

Ta'Kenya Nixon led Eastern Illinois with 22 points and Maggie Kloak had 14.

Eastern Illinois thumped Austin Peay 78-47 on Feb. 25 as the teams split the season series, and the Lady Govs remembered that embarrassing road loss.

The closest the Panthers got this time was a 2-all tie in the opening minute before falling behind by as much as 17. An 8-2 spurt by Eastern Illinois pulled the Panthers within 30-22 at halftime. Nixon's jumper in the paint got them within 40-39 with 12:19 left.

Austin Peay reeled off 12 straight points to rebuild its lead to double figures as Herring hit a jumper, then blocked Dominique Sims' layup and grabbed the rebound. Hanley hit a free throw and then blocked a jumper by Nixon. Rayner hit a couple jumpers, her second pushing the lead back to 52-39 with 8:06 remaining.

Eastern Illinois tried to fight back once again and whittled Austin Peay's lead to 66-60 with 29 seconds when Herring fouled out before running out of time.

The Lady Govs outrebounded Eastern Illinois 47-40 and held the Panthers to 29.5 percent shooting for the game. Jamen had 11 rebounds, while Rayner grabbed 10.