BOX SCORE

JACKSONVILLE – A red-hot second half by Tennessee Tech did in the Jacksonville State men's basketball team in its Ohio Valley Conference opener on Saturday, when the Golden Eagles claimed a 64-62 win at Pete Mathews Coliseum.

The Golden Eagles (2-3, 1-0 OVC) shot 68 percent from the floor in the second half win their second game in a row. The Gamecocks (2-7, 0-1 OVC) dropped their OVC opener for the first time under head coach James Green on a night where they got all but five points from three players.

Senior Jeremy Bynum led all players with a season-high 21 points, thanks to a 5-for-8 night from behind the arc. The Oxford, Ala., native was 5-for-8 from the floor in the second half to score 15 of his points. Senior Nick Murphy scored 19, while junior Stephen Hall added 17 for the Gamecocks.

Murphy, a 6-foot-4 forward from Bronx, N.Y., made his first five shots from the floor and had 15 points at the half. He runs his Division I record scoring total to 1,207 points, moving him past Gary Angel for 16th on the school's all-time scoring list. He also grabbed five boards in the loss.

Hall, a Birmingham, Ala., native, was 5-for-8 from the field and grabbed a game-high seven boards, while blocking two shots. Junior B.J. Miller was the only other player to score for Jax State, adding five points on a 1-for-6 shooting night.

The Golden Eagles turned to three guys in double figures. Alfred Jones and Kevin Murphy scored 14 and 12 points, respectively, while Zach Bailey pitched in 13 points off of the bench. Zac Swansey added nine and dished eight assists.

The Gamecocks jumped on TTU to start the night, scoring the game's first 12 ponits. They led by as many as 14 in the first half but let the Golden Eagles claw to within three at the half and grab their first lead of the night on a Jud Dillard dunk with 18:10 remaining in the game.

The two exchanged the lead four times over the next five minutes, before a 7-0 TTU run gave the Golden Eagles a 41-36 lead with just under 13 minutes remaining. They would stretch that lead to nine, a 55-46 advantage at the 7:26 mark of the second half, but JSU would storm back.

The Gamecocks scored 11 of the next 13 points to reclaim the lead with less than four to play, but a Bailey lay in with 2:10 to play put Tech up for good. The Gamecocks had a chance with two seconds on the clock, but a desperation attempt at a winner from Miller missed from the left corner.

JSU will now take nine days for finals before its next game, a Dec. 13 date at Oregon in Eugene. The game will tip at 9 p.m. CT, a game that will be played less than 48 hours prior to the Gamecocks' next contest at Presbyterian in S.C., 2,754 miles away. Both games will be broadcast live on the JSU Radio Network.