University of North Florida
MERCER
Mercer takes down Ospreys
1/20/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2007
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Jrvoje Pervan scored 16 points to lead four Mercer players in double figures as the Bears knocked off the University of North Florida men's basketball team 77- 58 in Atlantic Sun Conference action on Saturday afternoon.
Mercer (9-10, 5-4 A-Sun) outrebounded UNF (2-17, 0-9 A-Sun) 46-37 and hit 27 of 34 shots from the free throw line in winning for the third time in as many tries against the Ospreys. Shaddean Aaron inflicted most of the damage at the foul line, hitting all 10 tries to finish with 14 points.
Chris Timberlake scored 18 points for UNF, and James Grimball added his sixth double-double in 10 games with 10 points and 11 rebounds, but the Ospreys couldn't overcome a sluggish start in dropping their seventh straight game. UNF shot just 25 percent in the first half (7-of-28) and hit just one of eight attempts from 3-point range over the first 20 minutes to dig themselves into a 28-19 hole at the intermission.
The Ospreys rallied in the second half by hitting eight of 19 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc, but it wasn't enough to get any closer than six points down the stretch. UNF trailed just 36-30 with 15:20 remaining, but a 20-7 run by the Bears over the next six minutes put the game out of reach.
"We came out cold and flat," UNF head coach Matt Kilcullen said. "We weren't mentally prepared as a team, and it hurt us. We fought back in the second half, which I was proud to see, but we couldn't sustain it. We didn't play with the intensity that it takes to win games at this level."
The Ospreys did manage to slow down the conference's leading scorer, Mercer's James Florence. The freshman came into the game averaging nearly 20 points per game, but finished with just 12 points and hit only three of 14 shots from the floor.
Germaine Sparkes rallied from an 0-for-9 start to finish 4-for-14 and score 11 points for UNF.
The Ospreys will open a four-game road swing this week with games at Campbell on Thursday and Gardner-Webb on Saturday. Thursday's game is set for 8 p.m. in Buies Creek, N.C. The game will be aired locally on WIOJ-AM 1010.
