FINAL STATS

BIRMINGHAM – Junior Stephen Hall tied his career high with 20 points and senior Nick Murphy became Jacksonville State's all-time leading scorer in Division I on Wednesday, but the Gamecocks suffered a hard-fought 59-53 loss to UAB in Bartow Arena.

Playing in his hometown, Hall was 10-for-21 from the floor to hit the 20-point mark for just the second time in his career, while Murphy surpassed former JSU standout Walker Russell as the school's leading scorer since moving to Division I level in 1995.

The Gamecocks (2-6) were done by a more productive duo from the Blazers (6-1), who got 25 points from Cameron Moore and 18 more from Aaron Johnson, 71 percent of their total output. The UAB tandem scored the team's first 23 points and didn't have another Blazer put a point on the board until the 4:50 mark of the first half.

A 6-foot-4 native of Bronx, N.Y., Murphy had nine on the night for JSU, his first game of the year without scoring in double figures. It was his second basket of the night, a jumper in the lane with 9:56 to play in the first half, that put him over the historic mark and past Russell in the JSU annals. When the night was over, the fourth-year senior had tied Jerry James for 17th in school history with 1,188 career points.

Fellow senior Jeremy Bynum also had a big night for the Gamecocks. Slumping into the game, the Oxford, Ala., native found his stroke against the Blazers and poured in 18 before the night was done. He went 4-for-7 from behind the arc in the game, 4-for-5 from back there in the second half. He also made waves in the JSU record books, passing Pat Madden for second all-time with 180 career 3-pointers made.

The Gamecocks won the battle on the glass, 36-31 against a much taller and longer UAB squad and forced 11 turnovers, while committing just nine. The Blazers got 14 points out of their 18 trips to the free throw line, while JSU made six of its 10 shots at the stripe.

The Gamecocks matched the Blazers blow-for-blow in the first half, a 20-minute stretch that saw seven ties and six lead changes. Moore and Johnson did it all for UAB in the half, scoring all but three of the Blazers' points. Moore was 6-for-8 from the floor for 16, while Johnson added nine despite going 3-for-9 from the field. The duo scored UAB's first 23 points.

Hall made six of his 10 shots in the half to lead JSU with 12 points, while Murphy added six. The Gamecocks committed just two turnovers in the first half, while UAB gave it away six times.

The Gamecocks struggled out of the gate in the second half, going 5-for-18 in the first 12 minutes. The slump allowed UAB to claim the lead for a short time, but a Bynum trey put JSU back on top by one.

The Blazers would take advantage of a few JSU miscues and fouls to build a 55-48 lead with 1:04 to play, a lead that the Gamecocks couldn't overcome. They had a chance to get it to a single-possession game with 11 seconds left, but Hall's free throw after a made basket was too strong.

The Gamecocks will get their Ohio Valley Conference season underway on Saturday night, when they host Tennessee Tech at 7:45 p.m. at Pete Mathews Coliseum. Fans that attend the JSU football team's playoff game at Burgess-Snow Field on Saturday at 11 a.m. can bring their ticket stub to Pete Mathews Coliseum for free admission to the basketball games. The JSU women play TTU at 5:15 p.m. and the men will follow.