Western Kentucky men’s basketball coach Steve Lutz was certainly familiar with the potential of Austin Peay’s Demarcus Sharp with the game on the line, having previously faced him while at Texas A&M Corpus Christi when Sharp was at Northwestern State.

That’s why Lutz asked someone else who knew Sharp well to guard him with Saturday’s game on the line, fifth-year senior guard Jalen Jackson.

The Texas A&M Corpus Christi transfer stepped up with the biggest defensive play of the game, deflecting Sharp’s potential game-winning baseline jumper and helping WKU hold on for a 65-64 win over Austin Peay at E.A. Diddle Arena.

It was a fifth straight win for WKU (9-3), which remained unbeaten at home this season.

“Experience is so key in basketball and in life,” Lutz said. “Jalen has faced him. This is his fourth time guarding him and he takes it personally. Jalen is a good defender and he takes it personally, so I knew that it would mean something to him for us to win, but also to make sure (Sharp) didn’t score the game-winning basket.”

WKU never trailed, but was never able to put away Austin Peay despite holding a double-digit advantage on several occasions.

The Hilltoppers led by as many as 12 points in the first half, getting a spark from Rodney Howard who entered after starter Babacar Faye exited with two fouls. Howard was 4-for-5 shooting in 11 minutes in the first half.

“He’s been hurt and is probably going to be hurt the rest of the year, but he has done a much better job this week with his approach to treatment,” Lutz said. “Our medical staff has worked really hard with him. He looked more normal. He didn’t look as normal in our previous couple of games because his back, but I thought Rodney came in with the right mindset and certainly gave us a good life off the bench.”

Austin Peay was able to trim the 12-point deficit down to five, but Enoch Kalambay hit two free throws with 0.9 seconds left in the half to make the score 35-28 at halftime.

WKU continued to have a cushion, with the lead growing to 57-44 after a basket from Tyrone Marshall, Jr. with 8:35 left. Austin Peay quickly erased most of the deficit, using a 12-2 run to trim the margin to 59-56.

The Hilltoppers split two out of four free throws to increase the advantage to five, but the Governors answered with five straight to tie the score 61-all with 4:08 left.

Marshall’s dunk from the left baseline gave WKU the lead back and Don McHenry’s basket with 2:26 left made the score 65-61. Austin Peay got a 3 from Ja’Monta Black to make the score 65-64 and had a chance to take the lead with just under a minute left, but Sharp missed a jumper and McHenry secured the rebound.

McHenry missed a shot on the other end, giving the Governors one more chance. With a foul to give, WKU fouled with six seconds left. Austin Peay was able to get the ball to Sharp, who drove to the right and attempted an off-balance baseline jumper that was blocked by Jackson. Howard secured the rebound as time ran out.

“Austin Peay is a really good team, but they have a really good one-on-one player in Sharp,” Lutz said. “Fortunately for me, this is my fourth time playing him and I knew they were going to him down the stretch. Our plan was to somewhere around the seven, six, five second mark was to foul him – go for a steal and see if we couldn’t get an easy one, but at the end of the day not let him have his rhythm. Have them inbound the basketball again and it worked to our advantage, obviously.”

McHenry led WKU with 16 points and six rebounds, while Howard added 12 points and four boards.

“I know that was an ugly win, but those are the games you want,” Howard said.

Dezi Jones led Austin Peay with 16 points. Sharp finished with 14 points, going 7-for-20 from the field, while White added 12 points.

“I thought we played a tremendous defensive game for the first 12 minutes and then we obviously slipped a little bit,” Lutz said. “Give Austin Peay credit they had something to do with that, but down the stretch I thought we made just enough plays. It was not perfect by any means, but when it was time to execute out of a time out we executed.”

WKU will return to action on Tuesday, playing at Cal Baptist at 9 p.m. CST.{&end}