CONWAY, Ark. – An 11-0 early second half run gave Jacksonville University men's basketball a double-digit lead it maintained for much of the remainder of the game en route to a 74-64 win over Central Arkansas on Saturday afternoon at the Farris Center.
 
The Dolphins (12-9, 5-5) shot 64 percent in the second half to pick up its second conference road win of the season.
 
The first half was nip and tuck. Jordan Davis hit a three on the opening possession to start the scoring, one of just two made threes in the opening 20 minutes for JU. The Dolphins led until UCA hit a three with 7:40 to take its first lead, 18-17. It was short-lived, however, with JU quickly answering with a Dylan O'Hearn three. From there, the lead grew to six, with Mike Marsh hitting a layup, a pair of free throws by Davis and a monster alley-oop slam by Osayi Osifo out of a timeout to push the lead to 26-20 with 3:31 left.
 
The Bears battled down the stretch, and kept JU without a field goal for the last 93 seconds to end the half down just three, 30-27.
 
UCA started the second half with a three-pointer and a layup in transition to take a 32-31 lead and forced a JU timeout. The Dolphins came out of the stoppage refocused, and promptly embarked on the game's defining run. Marsh furiously jammed a dunk out of the timeout, followed by a Davis layup and-one. Marsh and Davis each scored again and Osifo buried a turnaround to complete the run. The Bears missed three consecutive three-pointers in that stretch, which ended with O'Hearn picking up a block on a layup attempt to set up the Osifo bucket. When it was over, the Dolphins went from down one to up 42-32 in 2:42 of game time.
 
The Bears used a few free throws to claw back within seven, before Jarius Cook buried back-to-back threes that sparked a 9-2 run that took less than two minutes, capped by a Sejr Deans three to go up 61-43 with 7:18 to play.
 
UCA had one last rally in them, hitting four three-pointers in a four-minute stretch to get within nine points, 66-57, with 2:35 remaining, On the ensuing possession, O'Hearn swished a contested three at the end of the shot clock to get the lead back to 12 and JU never led by less than double-digits again.
 
UP NEXT
 
Jacksonville returns home to host the River City Rumble vs. North Florida on Thursday night at 7 p.m. at Swisher Gymnasium.
 
COACH'S COMMENTS
 

"We played Jacksonville-style basketball. Multiple guys stepping up; we won by committee."
-Head Coach Jordan Mincy on the team's overall performance

 

"I think our guys got refocused. We had a couple of mishaps in transition D. For us, we knew what happened last game coming out of half, we had a lead and we ultimately end up losing and we didn't want to have the same type of result."
-Coach Mincy on the called timeout early in the second half that led to the 11-0 run

 
NOTABLE NUMBERS
 

• Osayi Osifo recorded his first double-double of the season, and the fourth of his career
• Osifo also scored a career-high 17 points, on 6-7 shooting, making all five free throws
• Jordan Davis scored one-shy of his season high with 18, and was joined in double-figures by Mike Marsh and Dylan O'Hearn
• The 61 percent shooting in the second half was the third-best half percentage this season and second-best on the road, trailing only the 67 percent first-half at Campbell