Ospreys drop game at ETSU

Sunday, January 27

Johnson City, Tenn.

2:00 p.m.

University of North Florida

East Tennessee State

Kyle Groothuis scored 13 points for the Ospreys against ETSU

1/27/2008 3:11:13 PM | Men's Basketball

Stan Januska leads Ospreys with 17 points

By: Tom Strother, UNF Athletics

BOX SCORE

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. - The University of North Florida men's basketball team made its short turnaround trip to Johnson City, Tenn., on Sunday afternoon to face defending Atlantic Sun Conference champion East Tennessee State. The reward wasn't worth the journey.

Kenyona Swader scored 19 points and Travis Strong added another 18, leading ETSU to an early lead and a 92-68 win at Memorial Center.

The Bucs (11-9, 5-2 A-Sun) shot 52 percent in the first half and took advantage of a 19-4 run midway through the opening 20 minutes that blew the game open and allowed them to manage a sizable lead the remainder of the afternoon. UNF shot 43 percent for the game but committed 18 turnovers and were outrebounded 46- 35 in the loss.

Stan Januska led the Ospreys (1-18, 0-7 A-Sun) with 17 points. Tom Hammonds added 14 points and Kyle Groothuis 13 for UNF.

Both squads were in Jacksonville for games on Friday night but through an A-Sun scheduling quirk were required to travel to Johnson City on Saturday for Sunday's game.

The trip didn't seem to impact the Ospreys early. They came out firing and trailed just 13-12 nine minutes in before the Bucs took control. ETSU took advantage of a rash of UNF turnovers and icy shooting by the Ospreys -- who went five minutes without scoring -- to assemble their 19-4 run over the next eight minutes and take a commanding 32-16 lead. ETSU led 48-32 at halftime.

In the second half, the Bucs continued with more of the same, stretching their advantage to 30 points at one point in improving to 5-0 all time against UNF.

The Ospreys did control the preseason conference player of the year, ETSU leading scorer Courtney Pigram, who came into the game averaging 16.2 points per game. The senior had just five first-half points and finished with 12 points -- albeit much of that came after the game was firmly in hand.

Turnovers and missed opportunities proved to be the difference for UNF, which couldn't overcome its early lapse in dropping its 16th consecutive game.

UNF returns home for a pair of conference games next week, facing Gardner-Webb on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Campbell on Saturday at 4:15 p.m. -- both at UNF Arena. The games will be aired locally on WBOB- AM 1320 and via the World Wide Web at ASUN.TV..