JSU Falls to No. 2 Morehead State in OVC First Round - Jacksonville State University Athletics

Wednesday, March 6

Evansville, IN

3 p.m.

Jax State

15-15

No. 2 Morehead State

23-9

Team	1	2	3	4	F
Jacksonville St.	13	10	17	20	60
Morehead St.	22	20	19	16	77

3/6/2019 6:11:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The Jacksonville State women's basketball team had its season come to a close on Wednesday with an opening round loss to second-seeded Morehead State in the Ohio Valley Conference tournament.

JSU ends the year with a 15-15 mark after earning the seventh-seed in the postseason tournament with a 9-9 league record. Morehead State improved to 23-9 and awaits the winner of the third and sixth seed matchup to determine its next opponent.

Entering the day, JSU was one of just four teams this season, along with OVC champion Belmont, No. 25 Kentucky and No. 3 Baylor, to hold the Eagles below 60 points in a game. The chance of that repeating quickly went away as MSU jumped out to one of the fastest first halves of the year against Jax State. The regular-season OVC leader in scoring defense for the fifth-straight year struggled to slow down an Eagle offense that shot 16-for-38 in the opening 20 minutes, and had 10 second-chance points off 11 offensive boards.

The solid force for the Gamecocks all day, much like all season, was senior Rayven Pearson who notched her 24th career double-double with 17 points and 14 rebounds. The Hazel Green, Ala., leaves a legacy as one of the top low post post players in program history with 37 games with 10-or-more points, and 851 career rebounds. Her rebounding mark stands as the fourth-most in school history, and second during JSU''s Division I era. Fellow senior Brianna Perry was next with nine points, while nine players overall scored for the Red and White.

The Gamecocks were forced to call a timeout with 6:20 remaining in the second quarter to regroup down 32-15. Nearing halftime Yamia Johnson added a three-pointer to end an extended scoring drought for JSU, and Perry sank a trey at the buzzer to make it a 19-point game at the intermission.

The Eagles picked up in the third where they left off in the first half with a fast-paced, aggressive approach that JSu struggled to find an answer for. Hawks took a steal back for her first points of the game as the horn sounded to end the third. She then opened the fourth with consecutive three-pointers to trim the deficit back to 18, trailing 67-49.

Jax State worked the deficit back to 13 following a jumper from JuToreyia Willis at the four-minute mark to make it 71-58. Unfortunately, a rash of missed shots slowed JSU's momentum and the Gamecocks were unable to cut the margin to single digits, falling 77-60 at the Ford Center.

For Pearson and Perry, it marks the final time the two suit up for the Gamecocks after strong careers that saw back-to-back visits to Evansville and the OVC Tournament.