University of North Florida
Armstrong Atlantic State
UNF men blast Armstrong Atlantic 68-56 in home finale
2/24/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Feb. 23, 2005) - University of North Florida senior Donny Lotz closed out his four-year career at UNF Arena on Wednesday night in the same manner he has so many times before - leading the way for the Ospreys.
The outgoing senior scored 19 points and collected 10 rebounds for his 16th career double-double to lead the Ospreys to a 68-56 win over Armstrong Atlantic State (13-13, 5-10 PBC) on "Senior Night" in the team's final home game of the year. The victory was UNF's ninth in its last 11 games and pulled the Ospreys (14-15, 9-6 PBC) to within a game of .500 for the season.
"We executed our game plan and played very well as a team," UNF head coach Matt Kilcullen said. "Donny really played hard on both ends of the floor and did a great job of leading us as he has done so many times in his career. It was a good way to end our home season."
The Ospreys shot 49 percent (23-of-47) and outrebounded the Pirates 35-26 in sweeping the season series between the squads for the first time.
A strong first half and a big run early in the second half put the game away for UNF, which guaranteed itself a winning conference record with the victory.
Derrick Scott added 17 points, Carl McNally 13 and David Ashwell 10 for UNF. Jamal Galloway led Armstrong Atlantic with 15 points and was the only Pirate to score in double figures.
The teams battled back and forth early on before a Chris Timberlake jumper put the Ospreys ahead 15-14 with 7:21 to play in the first half. A 21-6 run followed for UNF over the next six minutes and pushed the Ospreys out to a 36-20 lead. They never looked back.
UNF stretched a 37-21 halftime advantage to 49-25 in the first five minutes of the second half, getting 11 consecutive points from Lotz at one point. They led 62-38 with 7:26 remaining. The Ospreys got a little sloppy from there, allowing the Pirates to whittle the lead down to 12 points twice, but AASU could never get any closer.
Armstrong Atlantic shot 41 percent for the game but hit just 6-of-18 shots from 3-point range.
With Clayton State's win over Kennesaw State on Wednesday, however, the Ospreys watched their hopes of securing the No. 3 seed in the Peach Belt South Division evaporate. The Clayton State win locked UNF into the No. 4 South seed in the upcoming Peach Belt Tournament regardless of what happens in Saturday's regular-season finale between Kennesaw State and UNF.
The Ospreys will play North No. 5 seed USC Aiken in a first-round game in Augusta, Ga., on Wednesday.
On Saturday, however, UNF will travel to face the second-ranked Owls in Kennesaw. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. The game will be broadcast locally on WIOJ-AM 1010 and carried via the World Wide Web at www.unf.edu/sports.
