Box Score TUSCALOOSA – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team had Alabama on the ropes on Tuesday night at Coleman Coliseum, but the free throw line lifted the Crimson Tide to a 67-59 overtime win.
The Gamecocks (4-11) seemed to throw everything it took to upend the Crimson Tide (8-3) on the road, but they couldn't overcome 18 turnovers and a free throw discrepancy that put a lopsided number on the scoreboard. Alabama went to the line 43 times and made just 28, but that would be plenty on a night that saw JSU shoot just eight charity shots.
Jax State overcame a 13-point deficit in the second half and used a
JaQuail Townser 3-pointer with 33 seconds left in regulation to tie the game and send it to overtime. The Gamecocks scored the first basket of the extra period but couldn't get another to fall, while Alabama took advantage of three JSU players fouling out and connected on all eight free throws in overtime to scape with the win.
JSU got 16 points from freshman
Jared Hamilton, while Townser scored 14. Junior
Greg Tucker scored 10 before fouling out, and senior
Jeremy Watson added 11 points. JSU's leading scorer
Malcolm Drumwright failed to score on a night that saw him go 0-for-6 with four fouls in the game.
JSU outrebounded the Crimson Tide 41-37, led by six each from Drumwright and freshman
Christian Cunningham. Townser and Watson each pulled down five boards.
Alabama got 16 points from Arthur Edwards, while Riley Norris recorded a double-double of 10 points and 11 boards. The Tide had two players, Jimmie Taylor and Retin Obasohan, shoot more free throws than JSU shot as a team. The Tide was whistled for 15 fouls, less than half of the 32 called on JSU.
JSU started fast, building an 18-13 lead in the game's first 13 minutes, but the Crimson Tide cut into that lead and tied it at 27-27 with nine second left in the half. Hamilton knocked down a jumper at the halftime buzzer to send JSU into the locker room with a 29-27 lead.
Alabama started the second half with the hot hand, building a 46-33 lead with just over 11 minutes to play, but JSU went to work on the defensive end. Alabama missed its next 10 field goals to allow JSU to tie it at 52-52 on a Townser jumper with 2:25 to play.
Three free throws by the Tide set up Townser's trey from the left corner as the shot
Clock expired that tied the game and sent it into the extra period.
The Tide scored 12 points in overtime, eight from the free throw line, to pul away with the win.
The Gamecocks return home on Thursday for a New Year's Eve matinee to open Ohio Valley Conference play against Southern Illinois-Edwardsville at 3:30 p.m. in Pete Mathews Coliseum. The game will be the second in a doubleheader that will see the women's team face the Cougars at 1 p.m. JSU students and all fans ages 18 and under receive free admission for all JSU home games.
