PHOTO GALLERY (David Brandsma)

JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team erased a seven-point deficit with 90 seconds to play to hand Eastern Kentucky a 71-67 defeat on Thursday at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
 
Trailing 66-59 to the preseason favorite to win the Ohio Valley Conference East and defending OVC Tournament champion Colonels (11-7, 3-2 OVC), the Gamecocks (9-12, 2-5 OVC) scored 12 of the final 13 to grab the win. Senior Darion Rackley led all players with 25 points, while fellow senior Avery Moore scored 10 to reach the 1,000 points mark in his Division I career.
 
Rackley went 8-for-15 from the floor and sparked the late comeback for the Gamecocks. The St. Louis native drew contact and made a pair of free throws to cut the late deficit to five and then knocked down a 3-pointer from the right wing to make it a two-point game. He then grabbed the final of his four steals from EKU's Denzel Richardson and dished to Jamal Hunter for an old fashioned 3-point play that gave JSU the lead for good.
 
The Gamecocks connected at the free throw line, where they went 21-for-24 on the night and 10-for-11 in the second half, to hold off any comeback the Colonels tried to put together. JSU also forced EKU into 17 turnovers and committed just 15, only the second time this season the Colonels have lost the turnover battle. They entered the game second in the nation with a +9.4 turnover margin.
 
Hunter had 14 points and six rebounds in the win, including five-straight points that turned a two-point deficit into a three-point advantage in the game's final minute. Moore, a native of Tallahassee, Fla., and transfer from Florida A&M after the 2011-12 season, surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career. He scored 643 points in two years at FAMU and now has 363 in less than two years at JSU to run his career total to 1,006 points in his four years at the Div. I level.
 
Junior Jeremy Watson scored eight points, while senior D.J. Felder and freshman Malcolm Drumwright each pitched in six. Rackley finished the night with six boards, three assists and four steals to go along with his sixth 20-point scoring night of the year and the 15th of his career.
 
The Colonels got 16 apiece from Eric Stutz and Timmy Knipp, while Corey Walden added 10. Stutz added eight boards and Walden dished seven assists.
 
The Gamecocks won the battle on the glass, 27-24, and shot 50 percent (23-for-46) from the floor for the first time this season.
 
The game started slow for JSU, who turned it over four times in its first five possessions before falling behind 12-4 in the game's first five minutes. The Gamecocks woke up, reeling off a 13-0 run at one point in a 20-5 spurt that put them up 26-19 with six minutes left in the first half.
 
EKU answered with 12 in a row to reclaim the lead and held off a late JSU push before taking a 33-32 lead into the halftime locker room.
 
The Colonels scored the first two baskets of the second half to build a five-point advantage and led 40-34 with just over 17 minutes to play. The lead would change five more times before the game ended, with the final exchange coming on the Gamecocks' late game winning run.
 
JSU wraps up its homestand on Saturday against Morehead State at 4:30 p.m. in Pete Mathews Coliseum. It will be the second game of a doubleheader with the JSU women, who play MSU at 2 p.m. Saturday will be America's First Credit Union Kids Day at The Pete, with chances to win prizes available throughout the day. JSU students and fans ages 18 and under get in free.