JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team welcomes an old foe back to Pete Mathews Coliseum Saturday night, Dec. 5, when Jacksonville pays a visit for the first time since the 2001-02 season.
At that time, the two schools were both members of the Atlantic Sun Conference. The Gamecocks moved to the Ohio Valley Conference in 2003 and the series was put on hold until the Gamecocks took a trip to the Space Coast last year for a matchup in late December. JSU's played exactly 400 games since the Dolphins last played at The Pete on February 9, 2002. That game turned into a memorable one as the contest went into triple overtime with the visitors coming out victorious, 100-98.
The Gamecocks and Dolphins are both looking to get things going early in 2015-16. Jax State hopes to end a two-game skid that has come at the hands of a pair of local rivals. The Gamecocks fell to UTC in the championship of their bracket at the Emerald Coast Classic on Saturday and then fell to in-state foe Samford at home on Tuesday.
In Tuesday's loss to Samford, sophomore Malcolm Drumwright led three Gamecocks in double figures with 21 points on 7-for-10 shooting, whila also dishing four assists. JSU got 14 points from freshman big man Christian Cunningham, who was 5-for-6 from the floor. The big addition was 14 points from transfer Cam Biedscheid, a junior from St. Louis that saw his first action since his freshman year at Notre Dame. He was 3-for-9 from 3-point range and also had three assists and four boards in his first action as a Gamecock.
The Dolphins snapped a three-game skid on Wednesday with a 92-73 win over Florida Memorial. They are led by the trio of Marcel White, Kori Babineaux and Darius Dawkins. White is scoring 17.5 points and grabbing 5.9 rebounds per game. Babineaux is scoring 16.5 points per game, while Dawkins' 15.9 average is third on the team and 10.2 points per game more than the fourth-highest total.
Saturday's tip-off is set for 7:00 p.m., following the football playoff game across campus earlier in the day. Admission is free for JSU students and all fans 18 years of age and younger.
