JACKSONVILLE - The Jacksonville State men's basketball team will welcome in-state foe UAB to Pete Mathews Coliseum for a Tuesday evening non-conference matchup, JSU’s second in a three-game homestand to open the 2009-10 regular season.
The 7:45 p.m. game will follow JSU's women's game with rival Troy, and it will also mark the first time a member of Conference USA has played in Pete Mathews Coliseum. Current members UCF and East Carolina are the only C-USA teams to play at JSU, with ECU making one trip as a member of the Colonial Athletic Associations and UCF making several trips during its days with the Gamecocks in the Atlantic Sun Conference.
JSU enters its second game of the season looking to start the year 2-0 for the first time since 2003-04, which was also the last time the Gamecocks opened the season with two home games.
The Gamecocks are coming off a 93-64 win over West Alabama in Saturday’s season opener, a game that saw all five starters score in double figures for JSU. Sophomore Stephen Hall led all scorers with a career-high 19 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Senior forward Amadou Mbodji also had a big afternoon in the opener, scoring 11 points and blocking three shots to become JSU’s Division I leader in career blocks.
Junior guards Jeremy Bynum, Trenton Marshall and Jay-R Strowbridge each pitched in 17 points for the JSU offense, which shot 55 percent from the floor, 62 percent in the second half. Bynum, the team’s leading scorer a year ago, went 3-for-7 from behind the arc, while Strowbridge and Marshall combined for 13 field goals in their JSU debuts. Strowbridge transferred to Jax State from Nebraska, while Marshall joined the Gamecocks from Jones Junior College in Mississippi.
The team’s other two transfers, sophomore Dominique Shellman and Sean Thurston, also made impacts in their first games at JSU. Shellman dished a team-high eight assists, while Thurston led the Gamecocks on the glass with nine rebounds.
UAB is coming off of a 2-1 weekend at the Hispanic College Fund Classic in Kent, Ohio. The Blazers picked up wins over Wisconsin-Green Bay and Samford over the weekend, while dropping a game to tournament host Kent State. Elijah Milsap led UAB in the tournament with 16.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, while George Drake added 14.7 points and 2.7 boards per contest.
(courtesy: JSU Sports Information)
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