JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team will look to continue its hot start to the season on Thursday, when the Gamecocks host Alabama A&M at 7 p.m. at Pete Mathews Coliseum. JSU students and Children 18 and under get in free.

The Gamecocks will wrap up what has been a five-game homestand to start the 2012-13 season Thursday against an in-state opponent they haven't gone toe-to-toe with in quite some time. The showdown with Alabama A&M will be the 12th all-time meeting between the two schools but the first since the season opener of the 2003-04 season.

JSU holds a 7-4 lead in the all-time series and is 6-0 against the Bulldogs in Pete Mathews Coliseum, but most of those games were played when the Gamecocks were in Division II. In fact, the two schools that are just 102 miles apart have met just twice since Jax State moved up to Division I prior to the 1995-96 season. JSU is 1-1 against the Bulldogs since the move, dropping a game in Huntsville in 2000-01 before claiming a 74-68 win in Jacksonville on Nov. 21, 2003.

James Green also has a history against the Bulldogs, having coached three seasons at Mississippi Valley State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, AAMU's conference, before coming to JSU. Green is 3-3 in six meetings with the Bulldogs.

The Gamecocks are off to a 2-0 start for just the third time in the program's Division I history and the first time since that 2003-04 season. They are looking to go 3-0 for the first time as a Div. I team, with the last 3-0 start coming in 1994-95. They look to build on momentum gained in a 61-54 win over reigning Mid-American Conference West Division Champion Eastern Michigan on Sunday, a win that came just two days after a 30-point win over Reinhardt in the season opener.

The Bulldogs won their opener on Friday, 68-48, over Miles College but dropped their first road contest of the year on Monday, 98-40 at Iowa State.