CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team came up four points shy at the Show Me Center on Thursday, falling 76-72 to Southeast Missouri.
 
After trailing by as many as 18 points in the second half, the Gamecocks (9-15, 4-7 OVC) managed to cut the Redhawks (5-19, 1-10 OVC) lead to three but were unable to complete the comeback.
 
"We made a run," head coach Ray Harper said. "We got it down to three, but we missed the front end of a one-and-one twice. Those are momentum killers, and it's hard to win games when you do that. But I thought Juwan Perdue, Kayne Henry and Marek Welsch helped us out a lot down the stretch. We'll be ok if we play like we did the last 10 minutes."
 
Down 62-44 in the second half, Jax State outscored the Redhawks 28-14 through the game's final 11:37. Freshman guard Marek Welsch tallied eight of his 11 points and Kayne Henry scored seven of his 15 points during the stretch.
 
JSU whittled the lead down to three points, 71-68, with just over two minutes to play. Derrick Cook hit back-to-back free throws to make it a one-possession game, but SEMO basket and three free throws put the Redhawks back up eight. Starting guard Jordan Love scored three and Russell Nygal hit two foul shots made it a 76-68 games.
 
Layups by De'Torrion Ware and Welsch brought the lead down to four, but Welsch's field goal came with one second on the clock.
 
Henry scored a team-best 15, while Ware finished with 14. Both hit five field goals. Two of Ware's were worth three points, and Henry was 5-for-7 from the free-throw line. Henry just missed his fourth double-double of the year by two rebounds.
 
For the Redhawks, who claimed their first Ohio Valley Conference win of the season with the victory, were led by 17 points from Alex Caldwell and 16 more from Skyler Hogan off the bench.
 
Southeast Missouri held its largest lead of the first half with just three seconds remaining in the period. Trailing 43-27, Marek Welsch cut the lead back to 13 with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from a few steps over the half-court line just before the break.
 
Ware led the Gamecocks in scoring in the first half with seven points. The Hopkinsville, Ky., native was 3-for-7 from the field with a 3-pointer, while Elias Harden followed up with five points. Only Martin Roub and Juwan Perdue failed to score among the 10 Gamecocks to see the floor through the first 20 minutes.
 
Next on the schedule for the Gamecocks is a trip to Martin, Tenn. Jax State squares off against UT Martin at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The game will broadcast live on ESPN+.
 
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