LIVE STATS  |  LIVE AUDIO

JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men's basketball team will be at home for the final time in two weeks on Saturday, when the Gamecocks host Eastern Illinois in a key Ohio Valley Conference game at 4:30 p.m.

The Gamecocks will wrap up their four-game OVC homestand against a visiting Eastern Illinois team that, like JSU, is trying to improve its position in the OVC standings. The league title has developed into a two-team race between 10-0 Murray State and 9-1 Morehead State, but the rest of the spots are up for grabs just one game into the second half of the league schedule.

With their win over Southeast Missouri on Thursday, the Gamecocks have pulled into a tie with Tennessee Tech for a tie for fifth place, just one game out of a third-place tie between Austin Peay and Eastern Kentucky. EIU sits alone in seventh, one half game behind JSU and TTU, while SEMO falls into eighth.

Saturday's game would go a long way in the standings but would also allow the Gamecocks to carry some momentum into a tough road stretch that closes the regular season. JSU will play five of its final seven OVC games on the road, including a trip next week that will feature three away games in five days.

Thursday's win saw junior Jeremy Bynum sink a 3-pointer with 6.5 seconds on the clock to erase a two-point deficit and set up the 58-55 win. The Gamecocks fought through a sluggish second half that saw them shoot just 25 percent from the floor to somehow find a way to win. Junior Trenton Marshall led JSU with 14 points, while Bynum added 12 and junior Nick Murphy had 11.

Murphy, a Bronx, N.Y., native, used his 11 points to become the fourth JSU player in the school's Division I history to score 900 career points. He now has 904 points, 49 behind Courtney Bradley in third place. His 13.6 points per game put him on pace to become just the 20th member of JSU's 1,000-point club.

EIU is coming off of a 75-65 loss at Tennessee Tech on Thursday, the Panthers' fifth loss in their last six games. The Panthers lead the all-time series with JSU, 8-3, and have won the last seven meetings, including the last three at Pete Mathews Coliseum. They won this season's previous meeting, 50-48 on Jan. 2 in Charleston, Ill.