JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State women's basketball team was unable to close a fourth-quarter lead on Thursday, falling to Murray State 64-59 on Kid's Day inside Pete Mathews Coliseum.
The home setback for JSU (9-11, 3-6 Ohio Valley Conference) is the fourth-straight on their home court for the first time in six years. The Racers (7-13) now match JSU's league record at 3-6 in the OVC and own any potential tiebreaker via the win in their only regular-season meeting.
Sophomore
Taylor Hawks had her 10th double-digit scoring performance of the season to lead JSU with 14 points. Fellow sophomore
Jayla Walker added 10 points off the bench as all 10 Gamecocks to see action reached the scoring column.
Hawks opened the game with a jumper to put JSU in front early, but the Racers quickly responded and led for most of the first half, taking a 36-32 advantage into intermission.
In the third, Hawks opened with a triple to cut the margin to one where
Destiney Elliott would soon give JSU the lead at the free-throw line. Overall JSU was 5-of-8 from the stripe, while MSU made 16 of its 21 attempts. A corner trey from Walker gave Jax State its largest lead at 52-45 with just over a minute left in the period.
From there, JSU struggled to find any rhythm offensively as 9:32 of game time ticked away before the next Gamecock points. The lead was at five entering the final quarter and evened at 52-all with 6:47 remaining. In all, it was a 14-0 run for the Racers to propel the visitors ahead, 59-52 with under three minutes to go.
Pearson's layin with 1:43 left broke the drought and the senior from Hazel Green immediate stole the ensuing inbounds and found Hawks for another quick driving layup to cut the deficit to 59-56. Still a three-pointe game a little late, Elliott drive to the goal for a layin with 18 second left to pull within one at 60-59. MSU free throws stretched the lead back to three for one final possession where miscommunication led to an errant attempt to even the game.
JSU is back at The Pete on Saturday for a 2 p.m. tip against Austin Peay.
