JACKSONVILLE – Hot shooting from beyond-the-arc propelled the Jacksonville State women's basketball team to its 18^th win of the season and 11^th inside Pete Mathews Coliseum, tying the record in home wins, with a 66-48 win over Central Arkansas on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, JSU improves to 9-3 in conference play and continues to hold a three and a half game lead in first place of the ASUN West Division over North Alabama.

JSU shot 42.4 percent from the floor and 42.9 percent from three-point range in the win. On the other hand, UCA finished 39.6 percent from field-goal range and was just 25 percent from three. Five Gamecocks hit a three in Saturday's game, including Thompson, griffin and senior Kiana Johnson who each hit two or more.
Junior Nekiyah Thompson led the way with 16 points and five assists while sophomore Keiara Griffin added 15 points and four boards. Senior Kennedy Gavin led JSU with eight rebounds on the day.

JSU opened the contest hitting its first three three-pointers as Griffin, Martin and Thompson all connected from deep to lead 9-2. A fastbreak layup from Griffin pushed the lead to nine, 11-2 at the 7:15 mark before a 9-0 run from the Sugar Bears evened the contest, 11-11, at the first media timeout. A jumper from Kaiya Burnett put the Gamecocks in front, 14-13 at the end of the first quarter.

"It was nice to start fast but it was disappointing that after an 11-2 start they erased it with a 9-0 run to get it back to 11-11," said Head Coach Rick Pietri. "It was nice to start fast but their emphasis defensively was to protect the basket which left some open shots on the perimeter for us, and we fortunately were able to make some."
JSU outscored Central Arkansas 23-8 in the second quarter to lead 37-21 at the half. Thompson added 12 points in the first half to lead JSU.

The offense picked up where it left off in the third quarter, doubling up the Sugar Bears, 22-11 in the quarter to lead 59-32. Griffin scored 10 of her 15-total points in third quarter, propelling JSU to its 27-point lead. 20 second into the fourth quarter, Thompson added a bucket to give JSU its largest lead of the game, 61-32. UCA outscored the Gamecocks 16-7 in the fourth quarter, but it wasn't enough as JSU held on for the 18-point win, 66-48.

"We had a really nice second quarter," added Pietri. "We defended very well and made some baskets. We came out in the third quarter and continued to do what we've done in the third quarter all year which is defend and play offense. We established a board lead – we weren't great in the fourth quarter – but we established a big enough lead to where we just needed to ride it out and finish the game out with an 18-point win."

After two poor outings in a row in terms of turnovers, the Gamecocks protected the ball well against UCA with just eight turnovers. Meanwhile, JSU forced 15 Sugar Bear turnovers that resulted in 14 points.

"When you get into conference tournament play which is just a couple of weeks away you don't have the luxury of being inconsistent on that night because your year could end on that night," added Pietri. "We have to find a way to be the same throughout and I thought we did a better job of that today, at least in the first three-plus quarters."
The Gamecocks continued a positive trend this season, outrebounding the Sugar Bears 38-31. JSU is 14-1 when winning the battle on the boards.
 
Up next, JSU will close out the conference-road schedule at Lipscomb on Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. and at Bellarmine on Sunday, Feb. 20 at 1 p.m. Following the road trip JSU will return to Pete Mathews Coliseum to close out the regular season on Feb. 24, against EKU and Feb. 26, against UNA.