JACKSONVILLE – In the absence of senior leader
Rayven Pearson, fellow senior
Brianna Perry stepped up with a career-high 14 points to lead the Jacksonville State women's basketball team, but it wasn't enough as the Gamecocks fell victim to the Troy Trojans Saturday afternoon.
Troy (9-2) blew the lid off the 22nd-best scoring defense in the country with a 89-63 win inside Pete Mathews Coliseum in the first meeting between the two schools since 2011. The Gamecocks fall to 6-5 with the final non-conference contest of the year in the books. JSU started 7-6 last season, before reeling off a 12-6 mark in Ohio Valley Conference play.
Troy's 89 points were the most allowed by Jax State in exactly two years since falling to UT Martin, 83-94, on the road on December 29, 2016. It marks just the second time since the start of last season the Gamecocks lost when scoring more than 60 points.
A trio of Gamecocks led by Perry's 14 reached double digits, with
Yamia Johnson's 12 points and
Destiney Elliott's 11. Meanwhile, redshirt-sophomore
Jessie Day finished just shy with nine points for a new career-high against her old squad.
After Troy jumped out to a 7-2 lead, Johnson buried consecutive triples to hand the Gamecocks an 8-7 advantage midway through the opening period. The two sides battled throughout the remainder of quarter, until Troy's Amber Rivers gave the visitors an 18-16 lead with a layup to end the first. Rivers finished with a game-high 20 points.
Troy began to build its lead with a 25-point second quarter to lead 43-32 at halftime. The Trojans then rolled with 26 points in the third, while the Gamecocks managed just nine points as the deficit grew to season-worse 28 against the Gamecocks.
Trailing 71-43 in the fourth, JSU regained its composure late to keep the margin the same for the final eight minutes of game action.
Jax State will quickly turn the page - and the calendar in the process – as it looks ahead to the start of conference play next Thursday, January 3 in Nashville, Tenn. The Gamecocks will open the OVC slate against the three-time reigning league champs, Belmont, looking to snap the Bruins' 46-game conference win streak.
