CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – The Jacksonville State women's basketball team were unable to make it three-straight wins on Thursday, falling 79-52 to Southeast Missouri State on the road.
 
JSU (10-12, 6-5 Ohio Valley Conference) at one point was 19-for-21 from the free throw stripe for one of the few highlights at SEMO's Show Me Center on Thursday, before finishing 20-of-27. The RedHawks (17-5, 9-2 OVC) used a 9-0 run in the first to take control of the contest early en route to its conference-best eighth win in a row.
 
Taylor Hawks and Destiney Elliott both barely notched double figures with 10 points apiece – the fifth-straight game for Hawks. Kiana Johnson carried JSU with nine first-half points, but was held scoreless in the final 20 minutes. Elliott also led the Gamecocks with eight rebounds on a night where the visitors were out-rebounded 46-31.
 
Rebounds were just one if the lopsided columns on the stat sheet as the RedHawks won points in the paint (38-14), second-chance points (20-5) and scored 23 points off 15 Gamecock turnovers.
 
Elliott scored the first basket of the game to give JSU a 2-0 advantage, but a 9-0 run to follow by SEMO quickly set the tone for the evening. The margin grew to eight at 14-6, but after Johnson added an old-fashion three-point play in the final seconds, the Gamecocks had it back to two at the end of the opening period.
 
JSU found itself in early foul trouble sending Elliott and McKenna Lawrence to the bench for most of the first half. Rick Pietri used a timeout midway through the second as SEMO pulled out to a 30-20 advantage to regroup his club. Down eight in the final seconds, JSU had the ball looking to trim the deficit before the half, but a bad pass led to SEMO just beating the horn with a shot to push it back to double digits at 37-27.
 
JSU fell behind further in the third as SEMO put up a 23-spot for the quarter behind Carrie Sheppard and Tesia Thompson who finished with 23 and 22 points, respectively, to lead the home squad. Taking more contested shots in the final period in an attempt to make a comeback, the Gamecock hit just two of their final 15 from the field as SEMO closed in on its first win over JSU in the last three tries.
 
The RedHawks broke through JSU's OVC-leading scoring defense for 79 points, 27 more than JSU gives up on average. It had been 51 games against OVC opponents since JSU last allowed as many points.
 
JSU will head down the road now to face UT Martin on Saturday afternoon. The Skyhawks (14-8, 10-1 OVC) moved into sole possession of first place in the conference standings on Thursday with a win over Tennessee Tech.