BOXSCORE
JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State women's basketball team rolled to a 104-37 victory on Wednesday night in an exhibition matchup against visiting Berry College.
With offense having been an issues at times last season, Jax State appeared to have found several solutions reaching triple digits for the first time since a 103-44 season-opening win over Brewton-Parker to begin the 2017-18 campaign.
Graduate-senior
Destiney Elliott poured in 25 points to lead the Gamecocks. The junior duo of
Kiana Johnson and
Taylor Hawks followed Elliott with 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Jessie Day was nearly the fourth Gamecock in double digits with nine points as a dozen Gamecocks overall scored in the preseason contest. On the defensive end, JSU forced the Viking to hit just 26-percent of its shots, and pulled down 43 rebounds. Elliott led with seven boards,
JuToreyia Willis collected six, while Day and
Chloe Long grabbed five each.
Elliott wasted no time getting her hot-shooting night started with an opening three-pointer to give JSU the first lead. Berry responded with a triple of its own from Madison Wilder to tie it up, but JSU's next goal by Hawks just over a minute into the game would be the last time the Vikings were even. Wilder, who had a team-high 12 points for BC, hit another trey to keep her team close as the first period ended 18-12.
The second quarter saw the game break open as a 24-1 run for JSU spanned into the second period and led to a 39-15 advantage with five minutes to play until the half. The margin would grow slightly to a 30-point lead for JSU at the half, 51-21, with shooting 50-percent in the first 20 minutes.
Elliott made the lead an even 50 on a fastbreak layup in the third period to make it 73-23. The advantage eventually reach as high a 69 in he final stanza before JSU settled into its runaway win.
The Pete Mathews faithful brought a stir as the scoreboard flipped to triple digits on
Jayla Walkers breakaway layin in the closing minutes.
Jax State dished 23 assists for its 35 field goals, and swiped 18 steals from the Vikings to prove the Ohio Valley Conference's top defense the past five years hasn't lost a step.
JSU will return to the practice gym for final a few more tune-ups before opening the 2019-20 season at Vanderbilt on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
