ATLANTA—Jax State flipped the script for a historic win at Georgia Tech Tuesday night.
 
The Gamecocks connected on 15 3-pointers to lead wire-to-wire in a 81-64 win in the first round of the NIT, giving Jax State its second win over an active power conference team in program history, and the first since beating Alabama during the 1952-53 season.
 
"I was asked by ESPN today what they need to know about this team. I said, you need to know that they'll compete," said coach Ray Harper who picked up his 600^th career victory. "I don't know the outcome, but we will compete. And I think they showed that tonight. "They've shown it all year, so it's not bad when you can always feel like you got the best player on the floor to run."
 
Jax State grabbed a 9-3 advantage, thanks to connecting on two of their first three shots highlighted by a banked-in 3-pointer by Marcellus Brigham Jr. from the top of the key for the first points of the game. Brigham finished the night with 16 points, going 4-of-5 from 3-point range
 
Jaron Pierre Jr.'s 3-pointer at the 15:18 mark of the first gave the Gamecocks a seven-point advantage at 12-5, but a triple by Duncan Powell on the next possession got the Yellow Jackets back within four.
 
Georgia Tech connected on 3-pointers at the 14:21 mark and answered a Jao Ituka 3-ball with one at the 13:37 mark, both of which cut the deficit to one, but the Gamecocks came up with three consecutive stops, holding the hosts without a basket for just over two minutes to stretch the lead back to five.
 
Ituka and Quel'Ron House helped push the advantage back to seven at the 9:14 mark by connecting on 3-pointers to go up 25-18. Ituka had 14 off the bench. 
 
"I thought we took good shots," said Harper. "We hit a little bit of a funk late in the year, if you looked at our stat sheets and watched film, our assist numbers were low and because of it, we were having to take some difficult shots, but tonight I thought we did a great job getting paint touches."
 
Five straight points by Jaeden Mustaf got GT within a basket at the 8:25 mark and forced a Jax State timeout. During the timeout, the officials reviewed an earlier goal tending call against the Gamecocks and reversed it, pushing the lead back to four.
 
Brigham knocked down a much-needed 3-pointer at the 6:56 mark to quell the Georgia Tech momentum. A layup by Ituka off of a Mason Nicholson blocked shot gave the guests a 30-23 lead at the 6:10 mark and forced Tech to take their first timeout.
 
Ituka and Brigham went back-to-back possessions connecting on triples to stretch the lead to 13 with 4:06 to play at 38-25, but Tech was able to answer with 3-pointers on their next two possessions. Pierre answered with a line drive 3-ball from the left wing for the ninth successful long ball of the night to give Jax State a 12-point advantage with 2:09 left.
 
Despite missing their last four 3-point attempts, the Gamecocks took a 45-33 lead to the intermission.
 
Koree Cotton scored the first five points of the second half kick off a 10-2 run in the first 3:49 to take a 55-35 lead.
 
A three-minute scoring drought allowed Georgia Tech to get within 16 at the 12:23 mark, but Ituka's fourth 3-pointer of the night pushed the lead to 60-41 just 20 seconds later.
 
Pierre's third triple of the night at the 7:35 mark gave the Gamecocks a 21-point lead at 67-46, but Powell answered on the next possession to keep the Yellow Jackets in contention. The fourth 3-pointer by the Conference USA Player of the Year at the 6:35 mark pushed the lead back to 21. He finished the night with a game-high 30 points, going 11-of-18 from the field and 5-of-10 from 3-point range. Pierre also a team-high seven assists. 
 
Pierre connected on his fifth 3-pointer of the game at the 5:13 mark from the top of the key that rattled out, then dropped back in to give Jax State a 24-point lead for their biggest of the night.
 
Jax State will continue in the tournament's round of 16 against the winner of UC Irvine and Northern Colorado which play Wednesday night.