JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State women's basketball team held on for a 69-64 win over Eastern Kentucky on Saturday in the home finale of the season at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
 
The win for JSU (14-13, 8-8 Ohio Valley Conference) marked the fourth-straight on its home floor to end the year to propel the Gamecocks into a better position for postseason play after entering the day in a four-way tie for sixth in the league standings.
 
The Gamecocks recognized departing seniors Rayven Pearson and Brianna Perry in a Senior Day ceremony prior to tip-off, and the two went out in strong in their last game inside The Pete. Pearson posted a career-best 20 points to go along with 12 boards in her 22 nd career double-double. Perry added six points  and a team-high three steals that turned into runouts for JSU.
 
Redshirt-senior Destiney Elliott has been granted a sixth-year of eligibility by the NCAA, and will return for the Gamecocks in 2019-20.
 
Behind Pearson, freshman Yamia Johnson poured in 15 points in her fifth-straight game in double figures. Redshirt-sophomore McKenna Lawrence provided a critical spark off the bench on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc to shatter her season-high with nine points. It's the most the Evans, Ga., native, has scored against a Division I opponent.
 
Jax State got out to a slow start trailing 10-1 in the first four minutes, but began to find their rhythm late in the opening quarter. Down 15-5, the Gamecocks mounted a 9-0 run that lasted to the midway point of the second. EKU led 19-16 with under two minutes to play before the half until Lawrence evened things up with her first trey of the afternoon. Perry late took a steal back the length of the court for a pull-up jumper that gave JSU its first lead of the day at 21-19, which stood as the halftime score.
 
In the third, a three-pointer by EKU's leading scorer Abby Wright, who finished with a game-high 22, gave the Colonels a 30-29 advantage at the 5:09 mark. The Gamecocks used another big run, 10-0, over the next two minutes fueled by triples from Johnson and Elliott.
 
Leading by eight to begin the final stanza, Lawrence drained back-to-back three-pointers on consecutive possessions to extend JSU's lead to 14 at 52-38. The Colonels used a 15-4 run to trim the deficit to just three where it would remain for the final few minutes. Lawrence got a hand on an EKU pass to force a turnover in the final minute as Hawks iced the game with free throws in the closing seconds.
 
JSU heads to Eastern Illinois and SIU Edwardsville for the final regular-season weekend of conference play with a postseason ramifications still on the line.