Box Score

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JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team shut down Alcorn State early and held off a late rally by the Braves to grab a 63-52 victory at Pete Mathews Coliseum on Wednesday.

Freshman Undra Mitchem scored all 13 of his points in the second half while junior Jamal Hunter added 10 points and tied his career high with nine rebounds to help JSU improve to 4-7 on the year. The Braves were led by LeAntwan Luckett with 17 points and Shaunessy Smith with 12 points while falling to 3-6 on the season.

The two teams struggled in the early goings of the game, with both teams opening 1-of-10 from the floor in the first half. Juniors Avery Moore and Teraes Clemmons then came off the bench to lead JSU on a 19-4 run to help open the game up.

Clemmons hit two free throws and converted a 3-point play while Moore connected on two 3-point shots during the run. Fellow junior D.J. Felder then got in the action with four consecutive points to help JSU build a 22-8 lead with 5:06 to play in the half. Moore finished the game with nine points while Felder added eight points and Clemmons seven points.

The Gamecock defense clamped down for the entire half, holding the Braves to just 4-of-23 shooting (.174) from the floor in the first 20 minutes. They also turned the ball over 10 times before the half.

After starting 1-of-10 from the field, the Gamecocks went 8-of-18 from the floor to finish the half shooting 9-of-28 (32.1 percent) and committed just one turnover while taking a 28-15 lead into the break.

The Gamecocks opened the second half on a 7-2 run to build a 20 point lead at 37-17 with 16:37 to play. Senior Brian Williams finished with three of his season-high eight assists during the run. Williams eight assists pushes his career total to 303, which ranks ninth all-time and fourth in JSU's Division I history. The Lawrenceville, Ga., native also logged 31 minutes to become just the fourth player in JSU's Division I history to log over 3,000 minutes in a career.

Alcorn St. then began slowly chipping away at the Gamecocks lead, using a 15-5 run to cut the lead to 42-32 with 8:51 remaining. Clemmons would then knock down a jumper from Mitchem before returning the favor on a Mitchem layup. The freshman from Leesburg, Fla., would then knock down a 3-point shot to give JSU a 49-33 lead with 5:55 to play.

The Braves managed to shoot 10-of-25 (40 percent) from the field in the second half while knocking down 13-of-18 shots from the free throw line and again cut the lead to 10 at 57-47 with 53 seconds remaining.

Hunter then scored six points in the final minute of the game to help JSU hold off ASU to secure the 63-52 victory. The Gamecocks finished the game shooting 23-of-58 (39.7 percent) from the field while holding the Braves to a 29.2 percent (14-of-48) night from the floor.

The Gamecocks will next travel to Hanover, N.H. to face Dartmouth on Saturday at 3 p.m. before returning home for a rematch with Central Michigan on Tuesday Dec. 17 at 7:45 p.m.