JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team fell to a red-hot South Alabama squad on Saturday night, 74-64, at Pete Mathews Coliseum for their first home loss of the season.
 
The Jaguars improve their record to 8-2 and leave Jacksonville as winners of seven-straight games. The Gamecocks (3-4) saw its brief two-game win streak snapped while registering its first loss at The Pete since an overtime loss to Eastern Kentucky last season on Feb. 2.
 
Senior Darian Adams led JSU with 17 points, followed by Demaree King and Kayne Henry with 12 and 11, but it wasn't enough to keep up with USA. A 12-0 run midway through the opening half cemented the Jaguar lead at 22-14. A deep three by Jalen Gibbs as time expired to end the period cut the deficit to just one at the half, 28-27.
 
USA stormed out to begin the second with 7-0 run to pad its lead again. With 10:43 remaining JSU faced an 11-point deficit, before King and Adams connected on a couple of three-balls to pull JSU back in contention late.
 
The Gamecocks entered Saturday ranked fifth in the nation in three-point percentage shooting 43.6 percent, but were held to 9-for-25 at just 36 percent against USA.
 
Another big three for King brought JSU within two at 57-55 with five minutes to play, but JSU failed to score for nearly four minutes to let the comeback momentum slip away. USA secured its lead in the closing minutes at the free throw stripe where the Jags finished 17-of-19 for the game.
 
JSU hits the road to face VCU on Wednesday, Dec. 8.