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Austin Peay Basketball: Terry Taylor and Dayton Gumm to lead the Governors for 2018-19

By Jason Burgess

DES MOINES, IA - MARCH 17: The Austin Peay Governors cheerleaders perform in the first half against the Kansas Jayhawks during the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena on March 17, 2016 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)
DES MOINES, IA - MARCH 17: The Austin Peay Governors cheerleaders perform in the first half against the Kansas Jayhawks during the first round of the 2016 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena on March 17, 2016 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /
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After missing the Ohio Valley tournament two seasons ago, a pair of native sons hopes to lead Austin Peay back to OVC prominence.

Once a perennial contender in the Ohio Valley, the Austin Peay Governors have fallen behind the likes of Belmont and Murray State in recent years. Two years ago, they failed to qualify for the conference tournament and last season they jumped up to a fourth-place finish earning a first-round bye. Last season the Governors finished 12-6 in the conference and garnered 19 wins overall after winning just 11 games prior to head coach Matt Figger’s arrival.  Entering his second season at the helm the squad will be led by a pair of sophomore guards coming off solid first-year campaigns, Terry Taylor and Dayton Gumm.

Taylor, a 6-5 swingman from Bowling Green, Kentucky had a memorable freshman season. He is the team’s leading returning scorer at 15.6 points and rebounder with 8.6 boards per game and shot 54% from the field. He was also third on the team in three-point attempts with 88, shooting 43% from beyond the arc. On the boards, he snatched a team-high 291, including 133 on the offensive end, which was 32 more than the next highest total.

During the regular season, Taylor recorded 10 double-doubles and eclipsed the 20-point plateau seven times. He scored a career-high 30 points in the team’s Missouri Valley opener against Evansville and grabbed a season-high 17 rebounds in the penultimate game of the regular season against Eastern Illinois. Austin Peay received a bid to the CIT where Taylor finished the season in strong fashion.

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In the first game he scored 11 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in a win over Louisiana-Monroe and he finished the season with a new career high of 31 points and 12 rebounds in the quarterfinal loss to Illinois-Chicago. The year earned Taylor First-Team All-Conference honors as well as the honor of being the OVC Freshman of the Year.

Gumm, who is also a native of Bowling Green is the team’s other returning double-digit scorer. The 6-2 guard averaged 10.3 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists as a freshman. In his second college game, he led the team with 13 points in a loss to Virginia, where the Governors scored just 49 points as a team. After starting his career coming off the bench, he was inserted into the starting lineup against Miami-Ohio and never gave up the role. In that game he scored a season-high (vs. Division I opponents) 23 points, he would reach double figures 12 more times, giving him a total of 15 double-digit games.

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Despite being billed as a sharpshooter when he arrived on campus, Gumm struggled shooting the ball in his first year. Gumm attempted the 3rd most shots on the team but shot just 41.8% from the field and even though he shot over 50% from three-point land in high school, he shot just 41 for 120 from beyond the arc as a freshman, just 34%. If Gumm can settle in with his shot during his sophomore season, his production could spike, giving Figger one of the stronger guard tandems in the Ohio Valley.

Building on last year’s performance will be key if Austin Peay hopes to get back to a team to be reckoned with in the OVC and a pair of guards from Bowling Green, Kentucky will be leading the way.