Last-second shots and nailbiting victories seemed par for the course Tuesday in the opening round of the Men’s Basketball Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

Austin Peay pulled away a win from Eastern Kentucky in the last .9 seconds when freshman guard Corey Gipson made the game-winning three-pointer.

The final score was No. 1 Austin Peay (21-7, 14-3) beating No. 8 Eastern Kentucky (11-19, 5-12) by 83-80 in Clarksville, Tenn.

Gipson lead all scorers with 22 points for Austin Peay. The second leading scorer for Austin Peay was junior foward Adrian Henning, who finished the game with 19 points Following close behind was sophomore guard Anthony Davis with 12 points.

Eastern Kentucky maintained the lead throughout the entire game until 10 minutes left in the second half when Austin Peay stole the lead. EKU made three different attempts to tie with Austin Peay, their final attempt being a three-point attempt by sophomore guard Ben Rushing with four seconds left in the game.

The Colonels’ leading scorer was freshman guard Matt Witt with 20 points. Junior foward/guard Jon Bentley made a big impression in the first half with 16 points, but failed to score any points in the second half before fouling out.

Senior guard Shawn Fields assisted Witt by scoring 12 points. Fields also had six rebounds and four assists.

Austin Peay will advance on to play Murray State at 6 p.m. Friday at Gaylord Entertainment Center in Nashville, Tenn.

Second-seeded Morehead State (20-8, 14-3) was the first to claim a victory in the OVC men’s basketball tourney, defeating No. 7 Southeast Missouri State (11-19, 5-12) by a final score of 91-84.

The game high was from Morehead State’s junior guard/foward Ricky Minard with 30 points. Minard also had 12 rebounds and was 12 of 20 from the floor. Senior guard Chez Marks was Morehead’s second leading scorer with 22 points.

SEMO was able to fight back and cut the lead to less than two with a minute to play in the game.

SEMO’s leading scorer was sophomore guard Brett Hale who made four out of eight three pointers to have 24 points for the night. Senior guard Demetrius King scored 18 points while sophomore guard Derek Winans finished the game with 15 points.

Morehead will advance to play at 6p.m. Friday against Tennesee Tech in Gaylord Entertainment Center at Nashville, Tenn.

Third-seeded Tennesee Tech held the lead until No. 6 Tennesee Martin fought back in the second half to almost steal the game.

But Tennesee Tech (19-11, 12-5) was able to win the game against Tennesee Martin (14-14, 7-10) with a final score of 76-62.

Junior guard Cameron Crisp had the game high with 25 points. Senior foward/center Greg Morgan followed up as Tennesee Tech’s second leading scorer with 15 points. Morgan also had 13 boards. Senior center/foward Damien Kinloch had 11 points and nine rebounds.

Junior foward Joey Walker led the way for Tennesee-Martin with 19 points. Tennesee-Martin’s second leading scorer was junior guard Earl Bullock with 16 points, and made four three-pointers.