University of North Florida
Jacksonville
SUNTRUST RIVER CITY RUMBLE:
Ospreys swoop JU, 90-78
1/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 25, 2006
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - The SunTrust River City Rumble heated up on Wednesday night when the North Florida and Jacksonville men's basketball teams got together for the second time this season - with explosive results.
In the first-ever meeting between the teams at UNF Arena, UNF freshman Ryan Daugherty ignited for a career-high 28 points - including 17 in the second half - as the Ospreys raced out to an early lead and never looked back in posting a 90-78 win over the Dolphins before a record crowd of 3,013.
Jacksonville (1-17, 1-10 A-Sun) held its last lead at 6-4 early in the first half and tied the game 16-16 with 10:46 remaining before halftime. From there, UNF turned up the heat in the second half and pulled away with an early 20-2 run, stretching a five-point halftime lead to as many as 20 points in posting its first ever win over JU in three tries.
Alain Laroche added 23 points for the Ospreys (5-13, 2-9 A-Sun), including a perfect 14-of- 14 performance from the free throw line. Rashad Williams scored 17 points and Chris Timberlake 14 for UNF.
"I thought we saw a tremendous team effort from our guys," UNF head coach Matt Kilcullen said. "Ryan Daugherty really fed off of Timberlake, Laroche and Williams. We got some mismatches and were able to take advantage of them with Ryan. That was really the difference in the game."
UNF hit 32-of-37 free throws in a game that was otherwise statistically balanced.
The Ospreys shot 42 percent (26-of-62) from the floor, while JU shot 51 percent (30-of-59). UNF hit six 3-pointers to JU's seven, and the Ospreys won the rebounding battle, 36-34. The Dolphins shot just 17 free throws, however, (11-of-17) and committed 18 turnovers while forcing the Ospreys into just eight.
Aubrey Conerly paced the Dolphins offensively, leading all scorers with 30 points on 11- of-16 shooting.
"The key to pushing out to our big lead in the second half was slowing down Conerly's penetration," Kilcullen said. "That was a credit to our defense. But our guys fed off the energy from that incredible crowd all night, too. The atmosphere was tremendous."
UNF led 41-36 at halftime and wrestled up to a 51-43 lead with 15:30 to play. From there, however, the Ospreys exploded with Laroche leading the charge. The senior scored 10 points in Ospreys' 20-2 run over a five-minute stretch, which pushed the lead out to 65-45 with 11:47 to play.
JU was able to cut the deficit to 12 points on three occasions after that - the last with five minutes remaining - but could never get closer in losing its 15th consecutive game.
Antonio Cool added 19 points and Mario Brown 10 for the Dolphins.
With the win, UNF has now taken a 5-4 lead in the SunTrust River City Rumble, a year-long all-sports competition between the schools. The winner needs 11 victories to claim the SunTrust Old Wooden Barrel.
After completing a three-game homestand with a pair of wins, the Ospreys will return to the road this weekend with games at Campbell on Saturday and at Gardner-Webb on Monday. Saturday's game is set for a 1 p.m. tip in Buies Creek, N.C. The game will be aired locally on WIOJ- AM 1010 and via the World Wide Web at www.UNFOspreys.com.
