EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Despite a second-half rally that erased a 20-point deficit, the Jacksonville State men's basketball team suffered a 70-63 defeat to Murray State in the semifinals of the Ohio Valley Conference Championships on Friday, ending the Gamecocks' hopes of a second consecutive league title.
 
The regular-season champion Racers (25-5) relied on a 22-point performance from OVC Player of the Year Jonathan Stark and the hot hand of Terrell Miller to outlast the Gamecocks (21-12) late in the dwindling minutes of the contest.
 
Miller registered a double-double within the first four minutes of the game, totaling 11 points and 10 rebounds in the first half alone. He was 4-for-4 from the field with three 3-pointers, but the Gamecocks managed to keep pace with the help of junior Christian Cunningham.
 
Cunningham led Jacksonville State with 10 first-half points and two steals to keep the Racers within striking distance at the end of the opening period. JSU went to the locker room down 37-25 after climbing back from a 15-point disadvantage.
 
Despite falling into a 20-point deficit at the 14-minute mark of the second half, the Gamecocks mounted a miraculous comeback that saw Jacksonville State take its first lead since the first basket of the game.
 
Trailing 51-31 with 13:48 remaining in the game, JSU outscored Murray State 29-9 over the next nine minutes to tie the game 60-all with less than five minutes to play. Jamall Gregory scored nine points during the stretch, followed by six from Jason Burnell and six from Cunningham. Following a couple of good Murray free throws, Marlon Hunter gave the Gamecocks a one-point lead with a bucket and and-one foul shot, 63-62.
 
The Jacksonville State lead was short-lived however as Stark answered the rally with a 3-pointer and back-to-back successful free throws to put the Racers ahead by a nose. Up by four after the Stark shots from the charity stripe, Shaq Buchanan put the game out of reach with another 3-ball and a free throw.
 
Cunningham ended the night with 16 points, while Gregory totaled a second-best 15 and Hunter finished with 13.
 
Senior Malcolm Drumwright led off the game with a 3-pointer, pushing his career-scoring total to 1,369. The Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., ends his career as Jacksonville State's second all-time leading scorer in Division I history. His illustrious career as a Gamecock comes to a close with him holding the records for most games started (101) and most games played (122) in program history.
 
The Gamecocks end the season with 21 wins, setting the record for most wins in a single season by a Division I Jacksonville State men's basketball team. The last time JSU totaled more than 21 wins in a season was 1994-95 under then-head coach Bill Jones the season prior to joining the D-I ranks as a member of the Trans America Athletic Conference (Atlantic Sun).
 
For more information on the JSU men's basketball team, follow the Gamecocks on Twitter (@JSU_MBB). For more on all Gamecocks sports teams, follow the official social media accounts of JSU Athletics on Twitter (@JSUGamecocks), Facebook (Facebook.com/JSUGamecocks), Instagram (@JSUGamecocks) and Snapchat (@JSUGamecocks).