University of North Florida
Kennesaw State
UNF Pushes KSU to the Brink
2/17/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Feb. 12, 2005) - The University of North Florida men's basketball team forced defending national champion Kennesaw State to the brink of a loss on Saturday, before falling 60-57 to the Owls at UNF Arena.
With UNF (11-15, 6-6 PBC) trailing 58-57 Derrick Scott watched a driving layup go in and out of the basket with 8 seconds to play. Kennesaw (20-3, 10-2 PBC) sunk two free throws on the other end of the floor and the Ospreys couldn't get a 3-pointer to fall at the buzzer.
"I told Derrick I wouldn't have done anything differently," UNF head coach Matt Kilcullen said. "He had his shot and it just didn't go. We fought and gave ourselves a chance."
Scott put together his best game of the season, scoring 24 points on 8-of-13 shooting. Three of those shots were beyond the 3-point arc. Scott also contributed five assists and three steals.
After never leading in the first half and trailing by as many as 13, the Ospreys fought their way back into the contest, eventually taking a three-point lead in the second half on a Michael Lee layup with 8:16 remaining.
UNF led 48-46 after a Donny Lotz put-back, but fell behind for the final time when Rey Luque hit a jumper with 4:56 to play.
The Ospreys hung tight after giving up the lead and pulled within one when David Ashwell followed a Lotz miss with a layup to make it a 58-57 contest.
Georgy Joseph led Kennesaw State with 14 points to go along with 12 rebounds. Eight of those rebounds were on the offensive end. KSU outrebounded UNF 36-30.
UNF hit 9-of-18 shots from the charity stripe, but hit 4-of-6 in the second frame.
Lotz chipped in 13 for UNF to go along with seven rebounds.
The Ospreys are back in action on the road Wednesday when they will take on Clayton State for the third time this season.
