Box Score

JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State women's basketball team dropped its first game of the season's final homestand on Thursday night with a 54-47 setback to Southeast Missouri State at Pete Mathews Coliseum.

JSU suffered its ninth consecutive loss and fell to 4-24 on the season and 1-13 in Ohio Valley Conference play.  SEMO kept its OVC Tournament hopes alive with the seven-point road win and improves to 4-11 in league play and 7-21 overall.

JSU joined programs all over the nation in the “Play 4 Kay” initiative on Thursday with the pink theme. 

The contest was marred by turnovers as the squads combined for 49 turnovers as the Redhawks scored 16 points off Jax State miscues to aid in the win.  The Gamecocks turned in 15 points off of SEMO turnovers.  Both teams were near even in field goal shooting percentage as Southeast finished the night at 37 percent, while, JSU posted a 36 percent mark from the field.

The Redhawks cooled down in the second half after knocking down 12-of-24 shots from the field to build a sizable lead in the first half.  The Gamecock offense went stagnant late in the second half as SEMO swelled its one-point, 20-19 lead at the 5:49 mark, to an 11-point, 32-21 halftime advantage.  JSU closed out the final 3:26 second of the 20 minute half without a basket and opened the second half without putting points on the board until the second half clock read 15:11.  SEMO's lead swelled out to a game-high 15 points on two occasions before Jax State made a run to get within five points at 41-36.  The Red and White turned up the defensive pressure and turned that into an 11-3 scoring run over a five-minute span.  That would be as close as the Gamecocks would get as the Redhawks converted at the free throw line down the stretch to secure the win.

Jax State's post players led the squad in scoring as both Danielle Vaughn and Briana Morrow finished with 10 points each.  Vaughn nearly missed her 12th double-double of the season as the Huntsville, Ala.-native pulled down eight rebounds.  SEMO limited her touches in the second half as she scored all 10 points in the first half and grabbed seven rebounds in the first 20 minutes.  Morrow led the JSU charge in the second half with six of her points coming in the final 20 minutes.  Jax State out-scored SEMO 36-22 in the paint and out-rebounded the Redhawks by a plus-three mark. 

Senior Destiny Lane registered nine points and needs just two points in her final game on Saturday to reach the 900 career-point plateau.  She was a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line.  Senior Brittany Manning, freshmen Candace Morton and Miranda Cantrell added six points each. 

SEMO's Brittany Harriel led all scorers with 17 points and a team-high six rebounds.  Harriel was limited to just three points in the second half after carding 14 in the opening half.  Bailie Roberts finished in double figures with 10 points.

JSU will honor its two seniors prior to Saturday's 5:15 p.m. contest with OVC leader UT Martin.