JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — The Jax State men's basketball team dropped a close contest to the UTEP Miners on Wednesday night inside Pete Mathews Coliseum, falling 64-69 despite having one of its best shooting performances from the field in conference play.
The Gamecocks converted 24-of-49 (49 percent) shots from the floor, including shooting 8-for-18 (44 percent) from deep against the Miners, which is tied for the second-highest field goal percentage Jax State has achieved in league play and the third-highest three-point percentage.
Struggles at the free throw line, however, became a large contributor to the loss, as the Gamecocks were only able to make 8-of-14 (57 percent) attempts from the stripe, compared to the Miners who sank 14-of-19 (74 percent) attempts.
"Free throws were a problem once again for us tonight," head coach
Ray Harper said. "We have to make free throws. Our margin for error is not great if we go barely over 50 percent from the free throw line."
Neither squad gave an inch through the early minutes of the contest, before an early 11-2 run by the Gamecocks, aided by a pair of three-pointers by
Jaye Nash, turned a five-point deficit into a 20-16 lead for Jax State which was its biggest advantage of the first half.
The Miners were able to respond with an 8-2 run of their own from 11:38-6:31 (5:07) to retake the lead before both teams traded baskets through the final minutes of the opening stanza, resulting in a 33-33 tie at the halftime break.
"I thought when we got movement off the ball in the first half at times, we attacked them well," Harper said. "But then, we would have times where things were going good, then we have a couple bad turnovers and then miss a couple free throws. That's things you can't do and we haven't been doing. We could never get any momentum in tonight's game."
The Gamecocks came out of the gate hot in the second half, however, immediately going on a 9-4 run through the first five minutes of the frame to take a 43-37 lead, with
AC Bryant contributing five of his 17 points during the run.
Once again though, Jax State's offense grew stagnant as UTEP found its way back into the game and retook the lead once again at the 11:50 mark.
The Miners claimed their biggest lead of the night after a 9-0 run from 6:55-4:47 (2:08) gave UTEP a 64-55 lead down the stretch and would fend off a late rally from the Gamecocks to hold the lead the advantage of the way.
"Where we've been good is when we could get stops, make free throws, get up two, make a play and get up eight," Harper said. "We just never did that tonight. We just didn't. They deserved to win the game. Congrats to Joe [Golding], he did a great job with that crew tonight."
Jax State had multiple scorers reach double figures, including Bryant's team-high 17 points, trailed by
Mostapha El Moutaouakkil (16 points),
Jacoby Hill (10) and Nash (10) to round out the top scorers. Bryant's performance marks the first time the senior guard recorded double digit points since Jan. 23 against Middle Tennessee State.
The Gamecocks were able to hold advantages in the rebound battle (30-27), bench points (15-9), points in the paint (26-16) and second chance points (9-5) but were unable to claim a fourth home victory in a row.
The loss is Jax State's first loss of the season when shooting at least 40 percent from three-point range.
Next up, Harper's squad finishes a three-game homestand this weekend with a Valentine's Day matchup against New Mexico State on Saturday, Feb. 14, at 4 p.m. inside Pete Mathews Coliseum.
