RICHMOND – The Jacksonville State Gamecocks earned its seventh win in a row, defeating Eastern Kentucky 76-74 in comeback fashion on the road.

JSU overcame an 11-point deficit at halftime to earn the two-point win over the Colonels, marking Head Coach Rick Pietri's 352 NCAA Division I win. The win today, along with his 148 wins at the high school level, give Pietri 500 career wins as a Head Coach in the state of Alabama.

"I've had this privilege of doing this for a long time. You don't get the chance to win 500 games unless someone gives you the opportunity to be a head coach and I've been blessed to be a head coach for 22 years of women's college basketball and six years of high school boys. Lots of people would love to have that opportunity. I've been blessed to have it and to keep it."

A 19-0 opening run in the third quarter lifted the Gamecocks out of an 11-point hole in route to the fourth conference win of the season. With the victory JSU leads the ASUN West Division with a 4-0 record.

Redshirt senior Kennedy Gavin poured in 17 points, tying her career-high, to go along with a team-leading six rebounds. In total four Gamecocks scored double figures as senior Kaiya Burnett added 14 off the bench. Junior Nekiyah Thompson added 11 points and three assists while sophomore Madison McCoy scored a career-high 10 points. JSU's bench contributed 34 points in the win.

EKU opened the contest on an 8-0 run in the first 3:31 of play as the Gamecocks started 0-6 from the field.  Following a timeout, a pair of layups from Kennedy Gavin and Madison McCoy cut EKU's lead to six, 10-4. The Colonels continued to hold its lead on the Gamecocks, leading 18-10 at the end of the quarter.

The second quarter was similar to the first as the Gamecocks were unable to get anything going consistently on offense. The Colonels held an 11-point lead at halftime.

Out of halftime, the Gamecocks used a 12-0 run to take their first lead of the contest, 36-35 following a three-pointer from Thompson. A three-pointer from Burnett and five straight points from Thompson pushed the lead to eight, 43-35 at the 5:55 mark, capping a 19-0 run. EKU trimmed the lead to three, 51-48. JSU held a 54-50 lead at the end of the third.

With five minutes remaining in the game, EKU took a two-point lead, 63-61 following an and-one play. At the 3:00 minute mark, a jumper from senior Kiana Johnson put the Gamecocks back up by two, 67-65. Down the stretch, two huge three-pointers from Burnett propelled the Gamecocks to the 76-74 win.

"The two threes she made in the last two minutes or so were enormous," added Pietri. "They were trying to get back it, but Kaiya got free and hit two huge threes to extend the lead. No doubt, her contribution today was massive."

Despite being majorly outrebounded, 46-32 the Gamecocks scored 26 points off of 19 EKU turnovers. JSU, a team that ranks eighth in the nation in turnovers per game, turned the ball over just six times.

"We've got to find a way to start games better but in the first half I thought McCoy's energy just lifted our team and kept us in it. In the second half we started the second half with the energy we really need to start games with," said Pietri. "We were really good to start the second half, really good. High energy, making plays on offense and defense. The problem is once you dig out of that hole, it takes a lot of energy.

Sometimes you ebb a little bit and that allowed EKU to take the lead. To our kid's credit, we got the lead back and were able to hold on. Our kids deserve a lot of credit for finding a way to dig out of an 11-point hole at the half."
 
Up next, the Gamecocks continue a road trip with Central Arkansas on Wednesday, Jan. 19 at 7 p.m.