JACKSONVILLE – Senior Kayne Henry flushed home an emphatic dunk for the first score of the game, setting the tone for the day that would come as Jacksonville State ran away from Alabama A&M, 70-47, at home for its first win of the season.
 
Henry's opening dunk was followed by a corner three-pointer from senior Darian Adams, another slam by senior Brandon Huffman and a fast-break layup from Jalen Finch to put JSU (1-1) up 9-0 before fans were comfortably in their seats. AAMU (1-1), which entered the game coming off an opening win over Tennessee State, was forced to take an early timeout to slow the momentum. Once regrouped, the Bulldogs slowly closed the gap to three at 16-13 midway through the first half, but that is as close as it would get.
 
A triple from AAMU's Eric Lee, one of three Bulldogs to finish with a team-high 11 points, made it 17-16 to draw within one, but Finch answered with a triple of his own and JSU's lead was never threatened from there.
 
It was 23-18 with 8:25 to play in the first half when the Gamecocks rolled off 17-straight points to end the half. The run ended at 19 early in the second half after AAMU scored for the first time in more than nine minutes of game time.
 
The senior core that got things going for JSU all finished in double figures with Henry and Huffman each scoring 12 apiece, while Adams added 13. Huffman picked up the first Gamecock double-double of the year with 10 rebounds. From the bench, senior transfer Jalen Gibbs led all scorers with 15 points in his first big action for the Red and White. A native of Indiana Head, Md., the transfer from Mount St. Mary's has a career high of 30 points which came against Wilson College.
 
The lead grew to as many as 31 at 53-22 before the Bulldogs began to close the gap down the stretch. The win was the ninth-straight home-opening win for JSU, with head coach Ray Harper now 6-0 in such games. Harper collected his 99th win with JSU, and will look to become just the fourth head coach in program history to win 100-or-more games when the Gamecocks travel to rival Troy on Tuesday night.