BOX SCORE

JACKSONVILLE – Junior Jeremy Bynum drained a school-record nine 3-pointers on Tuesday night, lifting the Jacksonville State men's basketball team to a 95-78 win over Norfolk State in Pete Mathews Coliseum.

Bynum, a 6-foot-3 guard from Oxford, Ala., connected on seven of his first nine triples before finally tying the four-year-old record with his eight of the game at the 7:54 mark of the second half. After exiting the game to a standing ovation with 3:06 to play, he returned to the floor with less than a minute on the clock and knocked down the record-breaker with just 24 ticks remaining.

Bynum scored 27 points and the Gamecocks (5-4) connected on a season-best 15 triples and led from wire-to-wire in winning their third-straight game to get above .500 for the first time since Nov. 21. It was the seventh-straight defeat for the Spartans (1-8), who have now dropped two of their three meetings with JSU.

JSU had four players score in double figures, including junior Trenton Marshall, whose 16 points and career-best 10 boards netted the Garyville, La., native his first career double-double. Junior Nick Murphy added 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting but set up his counterparts with a career-best seven assists and no turnovers. A native of Bronx, N.Y., Murphy was reunited with several childhood friends that are now at NSU. Junior Jay-R Strowbridge managed 13 points for the Gamecocks in the win.

Senior Amadou Mbodji, making his first start since injuring his foot on Nov. 24 at Southeastern Louisiana, pulled in a career-high 12 rebounds, six offensive and six defensive, and blocked four shots to go along with seven points. Sophomore Domonique Shellman, one of the top assists men in the Ohio Valley Conference, dished seven on the night.

The Spartans turned to their leading scorer to try and keep up, and Michael Deloach did all he could. He scored a career-high 33 points, 29 of which came in the second half. Sophomore Christian Morris, a transfer from Rutgers that made his NSU debut on Tuesday, scored 18 points and grabbed 13 boards, nine on the offensive glass. The 6-foot-9, 275-pound center was 8-for-15 from the floor.

The Gamecocks scored the game's first five points before easing out to a 13-8 lead by the 13:10 mark of the first half. They would turn it on from there, using a 23-5 run to build a 36-13 lead. At one point, they used either a 3-pointer or a three-point play on nine-straight scoring possessions to pull away.

JSU took a 49-28 lead into the locker room at the half and never allowed the Spartans to pull any closer than within 16 points.

JSU will have almost a full week off before wrapping up a five-game homestand on Monday against Nicholls State. The game is scheduled to tip at 7 p.m. and will be carried live on the JSU Radio Network.