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JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team will return to Pete Mathews Coliseum for the first time in almost a month on Saturday, when the Gamecocks host Eastern Kentucky to Open Ohio Valley Conference play. General admission is just $1 and tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

After a six-game road swing that took the Gamecocks away from the friendly confines of Pete Mathews Coliseum for 28 days, they return home for a two-game stay that opens with an Ohio Valley Conference meeting with the Colonels.

The Gamecocks haven't played at home since a Nov. 19 win over Alabama State and have traveled as far as the west coast in the last month on a tough road trip. They wrapped up that swing in New Orleans in Tulane's Skip Prosser Tournament, an event that saw JSU go 1-1 with a win over Southern and a hard-fought loss to the host Green Wave.

Saturday's meeting with the Colonels will be the first conference game of the year for the league's 11 teams and will be JSU's lone conference game before New Year's Eve, when it takes on SIU Edwardsville on the road. JSU has controlled the all-time series with the Colonels at Pete Mathews Coliseum, winning seven of the nine previous meetings, while EKU has claimed all eight meetings in Richmond, Ky., to hold a 10-7 advantage in the all-time series.

The Gamecocks have been led of late by sophomore Brian Williams, who scored a career-high 21 points against Tulane on Sunday to earn all-tournament honors. The Lawrenceville, Ga., native also dished 11 assists and turned it over just once over his two games in New Orleans and now leads the OVC in assist-to-turnover ratio after ranking ninth in the same category just five games ago.

His 12.8 points per game over those last five games have raised his season average to 11.6, which is second on the team. Junior Tarvin Gaines, who scored 13 at Tulane the last time out, leads the squad with 12.0 points per contest.