Morton-Led Gamecocks Fall To SIUE - Jacksonville State University Athletics

Monday, January 14

Edwardsville, IL

7 p.m.

Jax State

0-18, 0-6OVC

SIU Edwardsville

8-9, 2-3OVC

Team	1	2	F
Jacksonville State	17	41	58
SIUE	40	40	80

1/14/2013 9:05:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The Jacksonville State women's basketball team wrapped up its trip to the state of Illinois with an 80-58 loss to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Monday night at the Vadalabene Center on the SIUE campus.

The Cougars (8-9, 2-3 OVC), who led from the opening tip, stretched out their lead to double figures by the 14:29 mark of the opening half and eventually pushed the JSU (0-18, 0-6 OVC) deficit out to 23 points at intermission. SIUE closed out the final 8:34 of the first half by out-scoring the Gamecocks 16-4 and took a 40-17 lead into the dressing room. SIUE's Jazmin Hill engineered her squad's 47 percent first-half shooting effort with ten of her 16 points in the first half. Hill entered the contest averaging just 4.7 points and led all scorers in the game. SIUE's leading scorer, Raven Berry was limited to three second half points.

Jax State's offense sputtered in the opening 20 minutes with just 7-of-18 shooting from the field and trailed SIUE in points in the paint at 18-8 in the first half alone. SIUE finished the contest with a 32-26 mark in the post and scored 25 points off JSU's 22 turnovers. Both squads shot the ball well in the second half as JSU hit 62 percent from the field (15-of-25), while SIUE knocked down 50 percent from the field in the second half. For the game, JSU hit 52 percent shooting and edged SIUE in shooting for the game as the Cougars finished at 48 percent.
Sophomore Candace Morton had a strong second half outing with 12 points in the final half. It was her second consecutive game with double digit points. The Lexington, Ky.-native, who celebrated her 20th birthday on Sunday, posted 11 points on the ledger at Eastern Illinois. In the half, Morton was 4-of-9 from the field and dished out three assists in 31 minutes of action.
Sophomore Gia Banks also had a solid second half with nine points, which matched her career high, which she set earlier this season against Tennessee State. JSU's Marikate Gardler, who had three straight double figure scoring games, was limited to six points on a pair of three-point baskets. Senior Danielle Vaughn, who made her first start of the season, finished with six points

SIUE, who came into the game hitting just 3.0 three pointers per game, doubled that mark with six made treys. The Cougars placed five players in double figures, including four of the five starters. Tierny Austin turned in 12 points, Jesse Wendt came off the bench for 11 points. CoCo Moore and Ashley Capotosto finished with ten points each.

The Gamecocks return home on Saturday, Jan. 19 to host Eastern Kentucky. The JSU men will play the first game of the doubleheader with tip off set for 1:30 p.m. The game will be carried live on Fox Sports South. The women's contest will get underway at 4 p.m. All tickets for the DH will be $1 and all kids under 18 are admitted free.