JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State women's basketball team was unable to upend its second-straight first-place team in the Ohio Valley Conference, falling to UT Martin on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Gamecocks (12-15, 8-8 OVC) fell 73-56 to the visiting Skyhawks (18-9, 14-2 OVC), who remain tied atop the league standings with Belmont going into the final weekend of action. After UTM put up 86 against JSU just 14 days ago, the Red and White limited the potent offense to 73 on Saturday.
 
The leading scorer in the conference in UTM's Chelsey Perry went for 32 points and the Skyhawks shot 49-percent from the field to keep the Gamecocks at a distance throughout the day.
 
Graduate Destiney Elliott led JSU's scoring efforts with 15 points, and hauled in a team-best seven boards. Junior Taylor Hawks and freshman Nekiyah Thompson nearly touched double digits with nine points apiece. Following its best three-point night of the season on Thursday going 12-of-22 from behind the arc, Jax State was just 2-for-17 on Saturday and unable to find its rhythm. Sophomore Yamia Johnson finished with eight points and two rebounds in her follow-up effort against UTM after scoring 32 against the Skyhawks on the road.
 
UTM raced out to an 18-6 lead midway through the opening period and the Gamecocks struggled to close the gap back to single digits. Down 28-14 with under six minutes to play before the half, JSU put together a 8-0 run capped by Johnson's layup to pull within six. The Skyhawks padded the margin back to 14 at the break, 38-24.
 
Behind by 17 in the third, JSU once again began to chip away at the deficit .A couple of jumpers from Elliott cut it back to an eight-point contest at 43-35, but JSU eventually ran out of steam against the potential top seed in next month's OVC Tournament in Evansville, Indiana.
 
Despite the loss, JSU has secured its third-straight trip to Evansville since the OVC moved its postseason tournament there in 2018. The Gamecocks currently sit sixth in the conference standings, one game ahead of Austin Peay in seventh, and two above both Morehead State and Murray State in a tie for the eighth and final spot. Due to the final weekend's schedule with APSU, Morehead and Murray each playing one another, all three schools can't combine for enough wins to each pass JSU even if the Gamecocks failed to pick up another victory.
 
As it stands, JSU's sixth place spot means JSU wouldn't have to play until Thursday, March 5. If the Gamecocks slide back to seventh or eighth, they will be forced to play on Wednesday, March 4 against one of the top two seeds.
 
Jax State travels to Tennessee State next Thursday evening, and then wraps up the regular season at home on Saturday, February 29 against Tennessee Tech for Senior Day.