JACKSONVILLE- The Jacksonville State women's basketball team dropped its first ASUN conference game on Saturday afternoon in Pete Mathews Coliseum, 66-44 to the No.21/24 ranked Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.
 
With the loss, JSU falls to 14-4 on the season and 5-1 in conference play while the Eagles move to 17-1 and 6-0 in the league.
 
Even with the loss, JSU continues to hold first place in the ASUN West Division.
 
Senior Kennedy Gavin led the Gamecocks with 10 points while senior's Kiana Johnson and Kaiya Burnett contributed eight points each.

Despite the loss, JSU held the Eagles to 66 points- their second-lowest point total of the season. The Gamecocks forced 18 FGCU turnovers but scored just ten points off them.

FGCU opened the game on a 9-0 run to lead the Gamecocks and didn't look back. At the 5:40 mark in the first quarter, senior Shawnta Shaw added the first bucket for the Gamecocks, ending the FGCU run. With 3:44 remaining in the first, a three-pointer from Williams cut the deficit to seven, 12-15. The Eagles held JSU to just one field-goal in the remainder of the first quarter to lead 22-11.
 
The Eagles picked up where they left off in the second quarter, opening on another 9-0 run to lead 31-11. With 2:07 to go before half, Kaiya Burnett drained a three-pointer, trimming the deficit to 15, 36-21. At half the Gamecocks trailed 38-21.
 
After over two scoreless minutes to begin the second half, Gavin drained a jumper to make it a 15-point game. FGCU continued to outscore the Gamecocks and eld by as many as 24 in the third. The Eagles led 54-32 after three quarters.
 
With 3:49 remaining in the game, FGCU led by 30, their largest lead of the game, 65-35. A quick bucket for Johnson at the 2:49 mark ignited a 7-1 run over the final minutes of the game; although it wasn't enough as the Gamecocks snapped an eight-game win streak, 66-44.

FGCU shot 49 percent from the field while JSU was just 25.4 percent from the floor. The Eagles also controlled the boards 43-38. JSU outrebounded the opposition 14-6 on the offensive glass but only scored five second chance points.

"At this point they are a whole lot better than we are. While are records were the same, it didn't reflect who the better team was," said Head Coach Rick Pietri. "I think that unfortunately, we have gotten in a rut with these horrific starts that we've had. We've been able to climb out of them in other instances but when you are playing a team as good as these guys you just can't afford to dig yourself a hole like that. We dug ourselves a hole to start and couldn't climb out of it. They were super energized. Their best player wasn't available, and their kids rose to the occasion and frankly our kids didn't. So, the result is what the result is. I did think that in the second half we came out with a much better defensive energy. I thought we defended a whole lot better in the second half, but we couldn't score."
 
Up next the Gamecocks will return to the road with a contest against Kennesaw State on Thursday, Jan. 27 at 4 p.m.