By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

JACKSONVILLE – Ricky Austin has been coming to Jacksonville State University basketball games since he was five years old. He watched his wife Dana and her twin sister Jana McGinnis play at Pete Mathews Coliseum. He’s also watched Dana coach the women’s basketball program for 10 years.

But Austin said he had never been a Gamecock like he was on Monday night.

Emily Monson scored a game-high 22 points and grabbed six rebounds. Kamryn Corporan collected 13 points, nine assists, seven steals and six boards. Cam Ward finished with 11 points and five boards in leading the Gamecocks to a 75-39 rout of Oglethorpe in their season opener and Austin’s regular season debut.

“I’ve always loved Jax State, but it was different tonight trying to direct a team and win,” Austin said. “I really wanted to win.”

And so too did the Gamecocks want to win for Austin.

“We talked about it as a group and we were like ‘We don’t want to lose,’” junior guard Kyeria Thornsbury said. “We did lose our two scrimmages (against Tuskegee and Samford) and we were like ‘We don’t want to feel that. It’s our first game at home, first game of the season.’ He’s never experienced it. He’s watched his wife play and coach. We wanted to give him something for himself. It’s just a sense of pride we have, just to play under him.”

Austin and the Gamecocks (1-0) had plenty of support at Pete Mathews Coliseum – many of the maroon and gold Spring Garden variety among the announced attendance of 1,322 fans. One of those was Spring Garden boys basketball coach Draevan Bowman, Austin’s successor.

“I wouldn’t have expected anything less,” Bowman said. “Personally there’s a lot of pride. He’s the reason I want to coach and be in education. The type of impact he had on me is why I want to do what I want to do.

“I went to Jax State and worked for Jana because of Coach Rat and the relationship there. Getting to see him and Cooper (Austin’s son and Gamecock assistant coach) do this on this floor, I’m proud for them. I know our community is proud for them. It’s just a special moment.”

It was a moment not lost on Austin.

“I kept looking around and seeing the people that were here. That’s my people. That’s my family,” Austin said. “I appreciate all of them showing up.

“There were a couple of times when we made that (27-8) run in the third quarter it sounded like Spring Garden’s gym a little bit. It was loud. I felt like that had an affect on the game. It affected the players. I thought they got energized when the crowd got into it. I really appreciate them. That was nice to see everybody. Some of the I haven’t seen since I left.”

The Gamecocks led throughout the game. They jumped out to a 22-9 first-quarter advantage and and held a 29-19 edge at halftime. As Austin said, the third quarter was when Jax State distanced itself to put the game out of reach. The Gamecocks held a 56-27 edge after three quarters.

No Petral reached double figures in the game. They were led by Aleyna Sheman’s nine points, Kinsey Harper finished with five points.

“I didn’t have a clue how it was going to go,” Austin said. “We’ve had so many key players out. Last Tuesday was the first time we had every player healthy for contact. I’m talking about players we expect to log starter minutes.

“We really had very little chemistry coming into this game tonight. We put in a lot of plays four weeks ago. I’ve done taken them out and put in some other stuff this week because I’m just now figuring out what our strengths are, what we can do and who can get it done.”

But Austin feels the Gamecocks took “a step forward.”

“We needed that,” he said. “I don’t think we could’ve accomplished that at practice today. We needed that game. That’s what I wanted and that’s what I kind of expected what I wanted, for us to feel like we took a step forward.”

JSU hosts Life University on Friday at 11 a.m.

NOTE: Austin’s daughter, Alabama sophomore point guard Ace Austin, was also in action on the court for the Crimson Tide in its season debut on Monday night.

The younger Austin started and scored 15 points, grabbed seven rebounds, had four assists and a pair of steals in 30 minutes of action in the Crimson Tide’s 92-56 victory over Queens. The win was the first for new Alabama head coach Pauline Love.

Ace’s thought’s were also with her dad on Monday.

“Ace text me an hour and a half before the game,” Ricky Austin said. “The last thing she said was ‘Just go win.’ That’s kind of what I shot back at her.”