JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville State's women's basketball team moved to 10-0 at home this season with at 73-55 win over Eastern Kentucky on Monday night as head coach
Rick Pietri moved into first-place on the school's all-time wins list with his 116th victory.
What started as a 7-0 deficit for the Gamecocks (12-6, 9-5 Ohio Valley Conference) ended with a record-setting win over EKU (7-12, 6-9 OVC). It's only fitting that Pietri set the new standard for Gamecock coaches against the Colonels, a team he owns a 13-3 record against all-time for the best mark against any OVC opponent.
Fueling the key victory was junior
Imari Martin with a new career-high 24 points off the bench, just two days after scoring her previous career-best of 21 against SIUE on Saturday. Martin went 6-for-10 from beyond the arc for the second consecutive game and added four assists. She was joined in double figures by Nekiyah Thompson (13) and
Kennedy Gavin, who had 12 points after getting the nod for her first career start.
Winners of three-straight overall entering Monday, and undefeated at home this season, it was a change of pace when JSU opened the contest in a 7-0 deficit to the visiting Colonels. Gavin broke the offensive drought at the free throw line, but EKU still led 20-11 after the opening period.
Martin drained back-to-back treys to begin the second, followed by a third from Thompson and a quick nine points brought JSU right back even with EKU. JSU would dominate the stanza, outscoring EKU 23-2 in the period to take a double-digit lead into halftime.
An early second-half surge brought EKU back within three at 37-34 at the midway point of the quarter, but another triple from Martin spoiled the short rally and the Gamecock lead was back to 10 by the fourth period.
With 73 points, JSU has now posted two of its top three scoring totals in its last two games after putting up 86 on SIUE Saturday. The other mark in that range was 74 against this EKU bunch on the road in January.
JSU now heads to Nashville for a weekend bout with Belmont and Tennessee State.
