JACKSONVILLE – Utah Tech scored with less than two seconds on the clock at the end of regulation and again in overtime to hand Jacksonville State its first loss of the season, 81-79, on Saturday.
The first-ever meeting between Utah Tech (1-1) and Jax State (1-1) took more than 40 minutes to decide when UT's Tanner Christensen scored two of his game-high 26 points in the final second of regulation to force overtime at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
Despite trailing for more than half the game, Jax State surged down the stretch to reclaim the lead before seeing the game sent to OT. In the extra period, the Gamecocks led by as many as three, but the visiting Trailblazers had the ball last in the closing moments of a tied contest before taking the 81-79 lead with 1.6 ticks remaining. Jax State's
Juwan Perdue caught a hail-mary inbounds and got off a turnaround three-pointer as time expired that just narrow missed off the side of the rim.
Graduate-transfer
KyKy Tandy led the Gamecock scoring with 23 points, finishing one shy of his career high previously set at Xavier in 2020. His three-pointer with just under five minutes remaining gave Jax State its largest lead up to that point at 65-60, before UT began slowly closing the gap in the final minutes. Jax State connected on just 5-of-15 triples total, while the Trailblazers faired better with a 9-for-18 mark from long range.
Behind Tandy, fellow transfer
Quincy Clark did set a new career high with 18 points. Perdue added a dozen points, while
Caleb Johnson rounded out the Gamecocks in double figures with 10 points to go along his a team-best six rebounds.
The back-and-forth battle featured 14 lead changes and tied 15 times with neither squad pulling ahead by more than seven points. A four-minute scoring drought in the opening half saw Jax State fall behind 21-16 midway through the period, before closing strong to take a 33-31 advantage into halftime.
Tech took a 40-39 lead early in the second stanza and did not trail again until Tandy's late jumper made it 62-60.
The Gamecocks won't play at home again until Nov. 30 when they host South Alabama. Jax State hits the road next week for West Virginia and North Alabama, before spending Thanksgiving week in San Antonio, Texas.
