St. Thomas, V.I. - Austin Peay guard Levi Carmichael scored all eight of the Governors' points in overtime to knock off Saint Louis 52-45 tonight in the opening round of the Paradise Jam at the University of the Virgin Islands. It was the regular-season opener for both teams.

"It was a combination of missing some good shots along with taking some bad shots," Billikens head coach Brad Soderberg said. "I thought going into the game that we would score, but have difficulty defending. The game turned out to be the exact opposite."

In a ragged first half, the Billikens shot only 18.8 percent (6-32) as Saint Louis missed its first 10 shots of the game and failed to score in the final 4:50 of the half. Bills senior guard Reggie Bryant finally broke the SLU scoring drought with a jumper at the 14:14 mark. It took the Governors nearly three minutes to score their first points, but AP zipped out to an 11-0 lead. The Bills got within five points twice, but trailed 23-16 at the half. Governors guard Maurice Hampton made all five of his shots to pour in 14 first half points.

The Governors built their largest lead at 33-20 with 12:09 to play after Carmichael drilled a trey. Still trailing 39-30 at the 4:54 mark, the Bills went on a 10-0 run to claim their first lead after a steal and lay-up by freshman point guard Reggie Bryant two free throws with 1:33 left. SLU junior guard Anthony Drejaj buried two more tosses with 17 seconds left for a 44-41 advantage, but APSU's Hampton knocked in a desperation three with 2.5 seconds remaining to tie it.

The Billikens again couldn't score from the field in the overtime as Carmichael mixed five free throws around a long triple. Hampton led the Governors with 21 points, while Carmichael finished with 17. APSU shot 38.3 percent from the field, 57.1 percent from the arc and only 57.1 percent from the free throw line. The Governors out-rebounded the taller Billikens 42-37.

Bryant was the only Billiken in double figures with 14 points. SLU shot 26.2 percent from the field, 18.8 percent from threeland and 66.7 percent from the line.

The Billikens (0-1) face Eastern Michigan on Sun., Nov. 21, at 4:30 p.m. (CT). The Eagles face Austin Peay (1-0) Saturday night. .