BLUEJAYS SINK SHOTS, INDIANS

JACKSON, Mo. -- Dribble penetrate. Jumpstop. Shot. Make.

Charleston made scoring look easy Tuesday night in an 86-77 win over Jackson.

The Bluejays shot 61 percent from the field (34 of 56) and turned the ball over just eight times to pull to 10-10 on the season. Jackson dropped to 9-11.

Everything seemed to fall for Charleston, which missed only two shots in the fourth quarter.

"We've been kind of inconsistent shooting the ball," said Charleston coach Danny Farmer. "I didn't expect us to shoot that well. We wanted it to be more of a defensive game."

Instead, it turned into a Ping-Pong affair.

"One thing we looked at was trying to cut down their penetration," Jackson coach Mike Kiehne said. "I thought we did a good job of that as the game went on but they just jumped up and stuck shots right over the top of us."

Lezcano Dean, who scored nine straight points on four shots during a 1 1/2-minute span in the third quarter, led five Charleston scorers who reached double figures. Jermorrio Betts added 14, Kewain Gant and Dontay Clark each had 12 and Henry Hall put in 10.

Matt Ferrell scored a game-high 24 points for Jackson, followed by Seth McDowell with 17 and Lance Bollinger and Brad Hillbert with 13 apiece.

Though Charleston started hot and stayed hot, Jackson managed to keep pace with the Bluejays.

After falling behind 10-2 early, Jackson mounted a comeback and tied the game at 34 when Bollinger hit a shot with seven seconds left before halftime.

Jackson held its last lead of the game at the 6:29 mark of the third quarter when Brown hit a three to make it 37-36. A Ferrell 3-pointer tied the game at 47 with 2:26 to go in the third but Charleston held the lead thereafter.

Leading 57-53 entering the fourth quarter, Charleston opened the final eight minutes of play on an 11-5 run and Jackson couldn't recover. Dean put Charleston's lead to double figures, 70-60, with 4:59 remaining.

Charleston's lead grew to 15 -- 78-63 -- at the 2-minute mark but Jackson hit some tough shots down the stretch to keep the score respectable.

While Charleston looked unstoppable on offense, Jackson wasn't too shabby, either. The Indians made eight of their 16 3-pointers and connected on 49 percent of their shots overall (25 of 51).

"We're not playing terrible," said Kiehne. "We're just not playing well enough to win. We need to work on the little things that can make a difference and hopefully the little things will lead to big things."

While Kiehne's team has struggled, the Bluejays have played some of their best basketball of late.

Since the Christmas break, Charleston is 7-3. The Bluejays have split games with state-ranked New Madrid County Central and lost to state-ranked Caruthersville and Paducah (Ky.) Tilghman.