East Central Alabama News

 A late 15-0 run on the road at South Alabama briefly, put Jacksonville State in the lead, but the Gamecocks were unable to hang on, falling 71-66 to the Jaguars.
 
Jax State (6-6) entered the contest fifth in the nation in three-point field goal percentage at more the 40-percent, but the Gamecocks failed to find the range from the Mitchell Center on Wednesday. JSU finished just 2-for-13 from long range for the fewest treys in a game this season by half going back to four triples against Illinois Chicago on Nov. 14. With the win, USA (6-6) takes a 3-2 all-time lead in the in-state series after back-to-back victories.
 
While the Gamecocks struggled to find their long-range offense, they made up for it by driving to basket early and often. JSU's first seven field goals came from inside the paint as the Gamecocks finished the day matching a season-high 40 points in the paint. The inside attack wasn't ideal with USA's seven-footer Kevin Samuel, who played against JSU last season with Florida Gulf Coast, all over the place while finishing one rebound shy of a double-double.
 
For JSU, junior Juwan Perdue stepped up with a career day scoring 20 points and leading the Red and White with nine rebounds. Along with Perdue, Maros Zeliznak found success inside with nine points, while senior Demaree King was the only guard to find his rhythm from the outside on his way to 24 points.
 
South Alabama led for more than 25 minutes total, and nearly all of the opening 20 minutes. With 2:50 left before halftime, USA took a 32-25 advantage, but it would be the final points for the home team until the second half. A couple of free throws  from Perdue and layups by Perdue and King pulled JSU within one in the closing seconds. On their final possession, USA missed a pull-up jumper with less than 10 seconds left in the half. Marcellus Brigham Jr., collected the rebound and quickly handed off to King who raced the length of the court for a layin just before the halftime horn sounded to push JSU out to a 33-32 lead.
 
Zeliznak opened the second half with a dunk to make it a 10-0 run overall for JSU, but the Jaguars quickly jumped back ahead with a strong second-half start. USA built its largest lead of the day at 55-43 with just over 12 minutes remaining. From there, Perdue and Skyelar Potter took charge and whittled JSU's deficit to single digits before King and Zeliznak continued to shrink the gap. In eight minutes of game time, JSU used a 16-4 stretch to tie the game at 59 on free throws from Perdue. With a one-point advantage, King buried only the second trey of the day for JSU to cap a 15-0 run that saw JSU leading 63-59 with three and a half minutes to play.
 
The lead was 66-65 with less than a minute remaining after a basket by Clarence "Monzy" Jackson. USa hit a pull-up jumper just as they had all day to go back in front, and JSU couldn't answer in their final possessions as the Jaguars iced the contest at the line.
 
After King's go-ahead bucket just before halftime, Wednesday's loss is the first time all season the Gamecocks failed to win a game they led at intermission.
 
JSU returns to action after Christmas with a Dec. 27 matchup against Georgia Southwestern at Pete Mathews Coliseum. 

Original source can be found here.