Austin Peay guard Chris Porter-Bunton (3) and UT Martin forward Myles Taylor (33) fight for a rebound in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game at the championship of the Ohio Valley Conference basketball tournament Saturday, March 5, 2016, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

NASHVILLE – Jared Savage shot UT Martin to shreds Saturday night.

And after the Warren Central High School graduate’s 24-point outing, he and his underdog Austin Peay squad are headed to the NCAA Tournament.

Savage hit eight 3-pointers, leading the No. 8 seed Governors to an 83-73 upset victory against the No. 2 seed Skyhawks in the finals of the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament.

Savage’s 24 points Saturday at Municipal Auditorium were a career-high. He started the game 0-of-4 from 3-point range before hitting eight of his final 10 attempts.

“The feeling’s unreal right now,” the freshman Savage told the Daily News. “It’ll set in later, but right now I’m just numb to it.”

Savage and his teammates – including fellow former Dragon Chris Porter-Bunton – won four games in four days to take the title.

APSU (18-17) took a losing record into the OVC Tournament and was 7-9 in league play. The Govs nipped Eastern Kentucky at the end of the regular season for the final bid to the 12-team conference’s eight-team tourney.

Once Austin Peay got to Nashville, the team caught fire. The Governors knocked off Tennessee Tech on Wednesday, Tennessee State on Thursday and top-seeded Belmont on Friday night in a 97-96 overtime classic.

They fought through their fatigue Saturday to clinch a conference tournament championship in front of a heavily pro-APSU crowd.

“I think if I told you that I could’ve predicted this, I’d be accused of lying, to be honest,” coach Dave Loos said. “I honestly couldn’t have told you I saw this coming. But they obviously did.

“And then when that light goes on, it’s so much fun to watch.”

The Governors took their fifth OVC title and first since 2007-08. When the NCAA Tournament brackets are revealed the night of March 13, they’ll include Austin Peay for the first time since that season.

Stepping on the floor in the Big Dance will be a moment of a lifetime, Porter-Bunton said.

“I’ve only dreamed about this when I was little,” said Porter-Bunton, who scored three points off the bench Saturday. “I’m making my dream into a reality.”

The Govs punched their NCAA ticket by hitting a school-record 16 3-pointers on 31 attempts – a blistering 51.6 percent clip.

Savage nailed half of those, one night after setting career-highs with five 3-pointers and 21 points against Belmont.

Savage missed four 3s in the first four minutes of the game Saturday as UT Martin (19-14) built an 11-3 lead.

Then he finally popped the lid off the basket, nailing a triple off a Porter-Bunton assist to bring APSU within 11-10 with 14:44 left in the first half. Porter-Bunton gave his longtime teammate Savage a big high-five as they raced back onto the defensive end.

“That’s my boy,” Savage said of Porter-Bunton. “I just wanted to win a championship with him.”

Savage drilled his second 3-pointer a few minutes later, giving the Govs a 17-13 lead with 11:00 to play in the first.

That’s when the 6-foot-5 guard/forward said he knew he was finding his rhythm.

“The rim started to feel a little bigger and I started to get more comfortable with the flow of the game,” Savage said.

Savage hit two more 3-pointers and finished with 12 first-half points to help Austin Peay to a 38-33 lead at the break. He also collected seven rebounds and two assists against one turnover in his 20 minutes on the floor in the first half.

Then Savage really took over to begin the second half. He swished three straight 3-pointers in the first 2 ½ minutes out of the locker room, making the score 47-35 in favor of his team.

Savage’s teammates recognized his hot hand and kept getting him the ball.

“They see me get hot in practice and how I can hit a lot of shots,” he said. “I just trust them.”

Other Governors pitched in. After a Khalil Davis jumper and a Chris Horton layup, APSU was rolling, up 62-43 with 10:29 to play.

The Skyhawks scored the game’s next seven points to cut the margin to 12. That’s when Porter-Bunton stepped up, nailing a 3-pointer from the top of the key for his only points of the night and pushing the lead out to 65-50 with 8:03 to play.

Porter-Bunton graduated from Central in 2014 but had to miss last season with a stress fracture to his right tibia. Now as a redshirt freshman, the 6-5 guard has become one of the first players off Loos’ bench.

“The start of the year I had to start off slow because I just got off the injury,” Porter-Bunton said. “I’m just now starting to play my best basketball.”

The Skyhawks hung around, trimming the margin to 68-58 with 4:34 left on a Twymond Howard layup.

True to form, Savage answered right back. He buried a 3 from the right elbow off a Davis assist to stretch the Governors’ lead back out to 71-58.

UT Martin never got the margin closer than eight points the rest of the way, and in the end Savage got to make the final inbounds pass before hopping up and down in celebration and then mobbing his teammates.

“This is big,” Savage said. “Everybody dreams of that as a kid, so it’s real now.”

Howard paced the Skyhawks with 24 points, while Jacolby Mobley and Alex Anderson added 15 and 14, respectively.

Savage finished with nine rebounds and two assists against two turnovers to go with his 24 points in 38 minutes on the floor. Josh Robinson, Davis and John Murphy totaled 20, 14 and 11 points each.

Porter-Bunton finished with three points, three rebounds, three assists, one block, one steal and no turnovers in 25 minutes.

Now Porter-Bunton, Savage and their teammates are OVC champions after a remarkable tournament run.

“I’m pretty tired right now,” Savage said. “But we won it, so I’m pretty happy.”

– Follow Daily News sports reporter Brad Stephens on Twitter at twitter.com/stephens_brad or visit bgdailynews.com.