JACKSONVILLE – History came calling on Saturday as Jax State held off FIU for a 70-63 win at Pete Mathews Coliseum in the program's debut Conference USA matchup.
 
Jax State (9-7, 1-0 CUSA) won its first-ever Conference USA contest after leading for 34 minutes and by as many as 18 points. Head coach Ray Harper improves to 7-1 in conference openers at the helm of the Gamecocks, including also winning the first-ever ASUN Conference opener in 2022, and all five of his league openers while in the Ohio Valley Conference.
 
The Gamecocks were led in a big way by Hopkinsville, Ky., native, KyKy Tandy pouring in a career-best 35 points. The graduate transfer led all CUSA scorers at 18.4 points per game through the non-conference slate, and punctuated that Saturday nearly doubling it against the first league foe of the season.
 
After dropping 23 points in the opening half, Tandy's 35 is the most by a Gamecock since Demaree King scored the same amount in his next-to-last game at Central Arkansas last February. Tandy also finished one shy of tying Greg Tucker's Division I record for most points scored in a home game. Tucker's 36 versus Morehead State at the end of the 2015-16 season was just one of the many memorable performances at The Pete over the years. On Saturday, more history was etched for the coliseum as the Gamecocks' first CUSA victory simultaneously marked the 500th home win for the men's program since the facility opened in 1974.  
 
While Tandy blistered the Panthers from the outside, redshirt-sophomore Mason Nicholson added a career-high 13 points down low to go along with five rebounds and three blocks. With Nicholson, Quincy Clark and Juwan Perdue's team-high 11 boards, the Gamecocks out-rebounded FIU, 44-27.
 
The two sides tangled early exchanging the lead six times in the opening half. FIU led 24-23 with five minutes before halftime when Tandy went on an 11-0 run of his own with a trio of three-pointers to carry a 13-0 Gamecock streak capped by a layup from Marcellus Brigham Jr.
 
With a 40-28 halftime lead, Jax State slowly stretched its advantage to 18 points in the first five minutes of the second half before the Panthers began to chip away at the deficit. A 15-2 run for FIU trimmed the margin to 56-51 with under eight minutes remaining. A few minutes later, a potential game-tying three-pointer banged off the rim with the Panthers down 60-57.
 
A critical moment came when Ivan Reynolds, who made his first start of the season on Saturday, forced a steal and found Tandy on the fastbreak who landed another triple to give Jax State a six-point cushion in the closing minutes. Reynolds finished with four boards, four assists and two steals.
 
The Gamecocks iced the game at the line as Clark buried four-straight free throws to seal Jax State's season-best fifth win in a row.
 
The Gamecocks hit the road for a series of tough tests up next with stops at Liberty (Wednesday) and Western Kentucky next Saturday.