Jacksonville – A strong night from beyond-the-arc carried the Jacksonville State women's basketball team to a 72-63 win over Bellarmine to begin ASUN conference play Wednesday night.

The Gamecocks recorded a season-high 15 three-pointers, just one shy of the program record, on 37.5 percent shooting from three-point range.

The win marks JSU's first win in the ASUN since rejoining the conference for the 2021-22 season.

Imari Martin scored a season-high 22 points to lead the Gamecocks and totaled six three pointers. Kiana Johnson and Kaiya Burnett each scored in double-figures with 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Bellarmine bested the Gamecocks in the paint, 42-22, but a 15-4 gap in three-pointers marked the difference in the game.

Kennedy Gavin led JSU on the boards with seven rebounds while Nekiyah Thompson dished out eight assists.

With the win, JSU improved to 10-3 overall and 1-0 in the ASUN.

"It always feels good to win a game," said Head Coach Rick Pietri. "I have a lot of respect for Coach Duagn of Bellarmine. I coached against her for several years in the Sun Belt. She's a good coach. Her team played really well. They played freely. They played like they had nothing to lose. They deserve a lot of credit for the effort they gave. At the end of the day our kids deserve some credit for finding a way to hold on and win it because it was in doubt in the last three minutes. We know that there are things we have to be better at than we were tonight in order to ensure success down the road."

The Knights opened the contest on a 12-3 run to lead the Gamecocks at the 5:49. Following a timeout JSU responded with a layup from Bre'Anna Rhodes and a three-pointer from Martin, trimming Bellarmine's lead to six, 14-8. JSU closed the first quarter on a 13-6 run, trialing the Knights 18-16 at the end of the opening 10 minutes.

Kyra Williams gave the Gamecocks their first lead of the game, 21-20, following a layup at the 8:17 mark. Just over 30 seconds later, a three-pointer from Thompson put JSU up by four, 24-20. Bellarmine regained the lead at the 5:42 mark, 27-24, following a 7-0 run. Back-to-back three-pointers from Kiana Johnson tied the score 35-35 less than a minute before half. The Knights briefly took the lead, 37-35, before Martin drained a three to put JSU ahead 38-37 with 24 seconds remaining. At the buzzer Bellarmine's Presley Brown scored a layup, giving the Knights a 39-38 advantage at the break.

Bellarmine scored the opening bucket of the second half to lead 42-38. JSU responded on a 10-0 run, taking the lead 48-42 following a fastbreak layup from Johnson. The Knights tied JSU 48-48 at the 5:32 mark but the Gamecocks held Bellarmine scoreless the rest of the way on a 9-0 run to lead 57-48. JSU outscored the Knights 19-9 in the third quarter.

JSU pushed its lead to 13 in the fourth quarter, 61-48, following a steal and layup from Burnett. Bellarmine cut JSU's lead to three, 61-58, with 5:43 to play but back-to-back three-pointers from Martin gave the Gamecocks a six points advantage, 67-61. JSU would go on to win 72-63.

JSU shot 37.5 percent form beyond-the-arc, a season-high on at least 20 attempts.

"Over time we were able to find open shots," added Pietri, "We took 40 three and I think 37 of them were wide open. If they are going to give those to us, we have to take them. If we miss we have to give ourselves a second chance and fortunately we made a reasonable percentage, 37.5 from the arc is a good percentage and late in the game we got some second chances off the ones we missed."
Bellarmine finished 30.8 percent from three but shot 48.2 percent from the field. 48.2 is the highest field-goal percentage the Gamecocks have allowed this season. Tonight's win marked the first of the season when JSU has allowed 60 points or more.

For the 13^th time this season the Gamecocks won the turnover battle. JSU forced 11 turnovers from Bellarmine, scoring 17 points. Jax State turned the ball over just 11 times.
 
Up next JSU will travel to Flowers Hall in Florence, Alabama to take on the North Alabama Lions in the first ASUN road contest of the season. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m.