JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State men’s basketball team will host Eastern Kentucky at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, following the JSU women’s team’s game against the Colonels at 2 p.m. Admission is free for JSU students and fans ages 18 and under.

The Gamecocks wrap up a three-game homestand against Eastern Kentucky and find themselves with some work to do in the Ohio Valley Conference race. With four games to play, JSU sits in ninth in a league that sends its top eight teams to the conference tournament in early March.

If the Gamecocks are going to make some ground in the league standings this weekend, they will have to do it against an EKU team that was picked to win the division in the preseason poll. They will also have to find a way to snap their current four-game skid that included a hard-fought 69-67 loss to third-place Morehead State on Thursday.

In the loss, four JSU players scored in double figures, led by freshman Undra Mitchem’s 13. Juniors Darion Rackley, D.J. Felder and Grant White each added 12 points for JSU, who overcame a 12-point deficit early to lead in the second half.

The Colonels are also in a slump, having lost two in a row, including a 72-66 defeat at Tennessee Tech on Thursday. It marks just the third time this season EKU has dropped back-to-back games. It sits in third in the East Division and fourth overall in the OVC.

Rackley leads the Gamecocks with 12.7 points per game, while he’s averaging 12.1 points per contest in OVC play. Felder is scoring 9.5 points per game in league play, including a shooting percentage of better than 55 percent.

(www.jsugamecocksports.com)