NASHVILLE – Jacksonville State's women's basketball team used a 27-4 second-half run to propel itself back to the lead and on to its seventh-straight win over Tennessee State on Thursday evening.
 
Trying to improve its postseason seeding, JSU (13-15, 9-8 Ohio Valley Conference) outscored the host Lady Tigers (4-23, 2-15 OVC) by 38-15 overall in the final 20 minutes of the contest. The 63-45 win moves JSU one game behind Tennessee Tech, who Jax State hosts for senior day on Saturday. A win in the regular season finale would secure JSU the fifth seed in next week's OVC Tournament in Evansville, Ind., with a 10-8 league record.
 
Graduate Destiney Elliott led the Gamecock scoring with 18 points, while junior Kiana Johnson pitched in 10 to also reach double digits. Jax State dominated the boards with 61 total rebounds for the most in a single-game since collecting that same number against Charleston Southern on December 19, 2014. Redshirt-junior Jessie Day led the way with a career-best 17 rebounds for the most boards by a Gamecocks since Rayven Pearson grabbed 18 at Georgia State two seasons ago.
 
The Gamecocks jumped out to a quick 10-4 after Johnson's driving layup with just over five minutes to play in the first forced a timeout by the Lady Tigers. TSU would climb back to within two by the end of the opening period at 16-14, and regained the lead at 24-23 in the midst of an 11-2 run that sent the home team to the half up by five.
 
TSU scored the first two buckets of the second half to grab its largest lead of the night at 34-25, before a jumper by Elliott sparked JSU's big second-half rally. JSU completed the climb back with a floating hook shot from Long to even the score at 38, just moments before Johnson turned a steal into a run-out layup to put the Gamecocks back on top.
 
After the nine-point deficit early in the period, JSU strung together a 24-4 run the rest of the quarter, punctuated with Yamia Johnson's steal and Elliott's buzzer-beating three-pointer in the final seconds to send JSU to the fourth up 49-38. In total, it would become a 27-4 run for JSU into the fourth before TSU scored its first points in more than eight minutes of game time.
 
The lead grew to as many as 21 for the Gamecocks during the final stanza, before clinching the 63-45 victory at the Gentry Center.
 
JSU will host Tennessee Tech in the regular-season finale on Saturday at 4:45 for senior day. The Gamecocks could earn the fifth seed with a victory, but are locked in to the 8-team field regardless. It will mark the third=straight trip to the Ford Center in Evansville for JSU since the OVC moved its postseason tournament there in 2018.