Golden Bears Wilt in Second Half, Fall to Jacksonville State
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ala. - For 30 minutes, Miles gave Division I Jacksonville State all it could handle, holding a five-point advantage early in the second half. But the Gamecocks held the Golden Bears to just one basket over an 6-minute span and pulled away down the stretch, securing an 88-71 win and sending Miles to a second straight defeat.
Albert Peterson scored 14 points, grabbed eight rebounds and added four steals while
Maiscei Grier had a game-high 19 points for Miles (1-2), which shot just 31 percent in the second half after connecting on 50 percent of its attempts in the opening half.
JSU (1-3) looked as if it was going to run Miles out of the gym in the opening 10 minutes of the first half, jumping out to a 24-12 advantage. But The Golden Bears put the clamps on the Gamecocks, holding them to one basket over a four minute period to take their first lead, 31-30, with 4:40 left in the first half. Jacksonville State would retake the lead but two free throws by Grier tied the score at 40, which is where the two teams stood at the half.
Hasain Bunnell (16 points on 7-of-11 shooting) scored at the 16:30 mark to give Miles a 48-43 lead and the Golden Bears looked ready to pull the upset. But things fell apart from there. Bunnell's bucket at the 13:12 mark was the last field goal for Miles until Peterson scored with 7:43 left and the Gamecocks had taken the lead for good. Not long after, JSU went on a 10-2 run to put the contest out of reach.
Jamal Hunter had 17 points and 17 rebounds and Jeremy Watson had 12 points and 11 rebounds for Jacksonville State, which had five players score in double figures. Miles, which is off until a Dec. 1 road match at West Alabama, scored 21 points off of 19 JSU turnovers.
