Brown carries E. Kentucky past Jacksonville St. 81-77

Jan 24, 2020, 04:06 am

JACKSONVILLE, Ala. -- Jomaru Brown had 24 points as Eastern Kentucky narrowly beat Jacksonville State 81-77 on Thursday night.

Tre King had 18 points and nine rebounds for Eastern Kentucky (8-12, 5-2 Ohio Valley Conference). Russhard Cruickshank added 15 points.

JSU trailed by 11 with eight minutes to play but scored 17 of the next 25 points to trim its deficit to 75-73 when Jacara Cross made a layup with 1:31 remaining but Brown made 6-of-6 free throws from there and the Colonels held on.

Cross tied a career high with 20 points and had three blocks for the Gamecocks (8-12, 3-4). De'Torrion Ware added 13 points. Elias Harden had 13 points and six rebounds.

The Colonels leveled the season series against the Gamecocks, who defeated EKU 80-71 on Jan. 4. Eastern Kentucky plays Tennessee Tech on the road on Saturday. Jacksonville State plays Morehead State at home on Saturday.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights, http://www.automatedinsights.com/ap, using data from STATS LLC, https://www.stats.com