DELAND, Fla.– The Jacksonville State women's basketball team fell to Stetson on the road, 70-66 to close out ASUN cross-divisional play on Wednesday.
Shooting woes and turnovers plagued the Gamecocks in the road contest as the squad shot just 36 percent from the field and committed 18 turnovers that resulted in 22 points for the Hatters.
"Our problem right now is that we continue to have horrific starts. We dug ourselves into a 7-2 hole to start and lost the game by four. It's just what this team does, and I'm really frustrated by it. Outside of Jacksonville, all ten of our other conference games have started poorly and I'm really confused about how to address that," said Head Coach
Rick Pietri. "As far as the game itself I think there was stretches where we did some good things, but the problem is we are not consistent defensively. Frequently we pay for it when that happens. The thing this team gets credit for is that they continue to fight even when they get behind, but it would just be nice for us not to dig ourselves holes like we have done several times this year."
Despite the loss, senior
Shawnta Shaw recorded one of the best games of her career with a career-high 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field to go along with eight rebounds, five steals and four assists. Wednesday's game marked the first time a Gamecock totaled five steals in a game since Brittany Manning on Dec. 28, 2011.
Kennedy Gavin recorded her fourth double-double of the season with 15 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds.
"We lost Nekiyah and [Shawnta] had to finish the game," added Pietri. "I thought she did a great job in terms of her effort and her attempt to basically 'put us on her back' and keep us in the game and give us a chance to win."
Despite being outscored 17-8 in the first quarter, JSU opened the second quarter on a 6-0 run, capped with a pair of
Imari Martin free-throws, that helped tie the contest twice in the quarter. The Gamecocks outscored the Hatters 17-10 in the second but trailed by two at halftime, 27-25.
Stetson extended its lead to six just over a minute into the third quarter, 31-25. JSU responded with a 6-0 run to tie, 31-31 following a layup from
Keiara Griffin. With 5:22 remaining in the third quarter, a pair of free-throws from
Madison McCoy gave the Gamecocks their first lead of the game, 37-36. A 10-2 run, capped with two Martin free-throws, gave JSU its largest lead of the game, 45-38 with 1:43 remaining in the quarter. Stetson closed out the quarter on a 9-2 run as the Gamecocks led 49-47 entering the fourth. Stetson quickly took the lead back from the JSU and led by as many as nine, 66-57 with 2:49 to go. An ensuing four-point play for
Kyra Williams and an and-one for Gavin on back-to-back plays cut the lead to two with 2:15 to play. Stetson held off the Gamecocks the rest of the way, handing JSU just its third loss in conference play.
JSU outrebounded the Hatters 45-38, marking just the first loss this season when outrebounding the opponent. Stetson finished 22-of-27 from the line while JSU was 16-of-20.
Up next the Gamecocks return to Pete Mathews Coliseum for a second meeting with Central Arkansas at 1:45 p.m. Visit JSUGamecocksports.com for more information on JSU women's basketball. Follow the Gamecocks on social media @JSUGamecocksWBB.
