NASHVILLE – Jacksonville State's women's basketball team snapped its three-game skid with a big 62-52 road win at Tennessee State on Saturday to secure its first Ohio Valley Conference win of the year.
 
It marked the fourth-straight win for JSU (7-6, 1-1 OVC) over the Lady Tigers who remain winless on the season.
 
Sophomore Taylor Hawks had 11 second-half points to lead the Gamecocks with a team-high 15 points, just two shy of her season high which also came in the Music City with 17 at Lipscomb in November. Fellow sophomore Jayla Walker finished one off her career high with 10 points, while senior Rayven Pearson notched her sixth double-double of the year with 11 points and 11 boards.   
 
After a 9-9 deadlock at the first media timeout of the game, TSU closed the opening period with a 6-0 run to grab its largest lead of the game for the home squad. 
 
Hawks drove to the rim early in the second and drew a foul to create a three-point play the old way and cut the deficit to 15-12. TSU maintained its slim lead until just Walker hit the Gamecocks' first trey to propel JSU ahead, 21-20. Like the Lady Tigers in the first quarter, Jax State made a run to close the period on a 9-2 stretch to lead 27-22 at intermission.
 
JSU continued to stave off the TSU offense for the first three minutes of the second half as Yamia Johnson, Hawks and Pearson scored the opening seven points of the third to increase JSU's run to 16-2 going back to the second period. The lead grew to 17 at 43-26 following Johnson's second triple of the afternoon.
 
In the fourth, Jessie Day made it a 53-35 advantage with a short jumper in the lane. Overall, JSU outscored TSU 36-16 in the paint, despite losing the turnover battle, 19-12. A late 7-0 run by TSU cut the deficit to single digits with just under two minutes remaining, but the Lady Tigers were unable to take advantage of their 34 free throw attempts on the day, missing 14 of them. Elliott and Hawks iced the game with free throws in the final 30 seconds to push the lead back to 13, before TSU sank a long three at the buzzer to make the final decision 62-52.
 
After splitting the opening road trip of the conference season, the Gamecocks return home for two consecutive weekends to host Eastern Illinois, SIU-Edwardsville, Belmont and Tennessee Tech.