Moore caps UNF comeback win

Monday, February 25

Jacksonville, Fla.

7:00 PM

University of North Florida

Kennesaw State

Shandrea Moore's putback sends UNF out with a win on its home court.

2/25/2008 9:03:42 PM | Women's Basketball

Lady Ospreys close out Kennesaw State with 12-3 run

Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida women's basketball team put an exclamation point on its season at UNF Arena with a thrilling 50-49 victory against long-time foe Kennesaw State.

Shandrea Moore's putback of a Juliemay Syquio missed 3-point attempt with 7.3 seconds to play proved to be the difference for the Lady Ospreys (13-14, 8-6 A-Sun), which had to fend off a pair of Kennesaw State (15-12, 10-5 A-Sun) looks at the basket on the other end of the court before time expired.

“This was a typical Kennesaw State-UNF game,” UNF head coach Mary Tappmeyer said. “This team was not happy with the way it played up at Kennesaw and they wanted to prove to Kennesaw State that they were much better than the team they saw the first time around.”

Shennette Sheffield led the Lady Ospreys with 18 points and finished one rebound shy of a double-double, while Jennifer Guldager pulled down a career-high 14 rebounds. KSU's Britteny Henderson led all players with 20 points and 15 rebounds.

UNF held the lead briefly in the first four minuets of play before falling down by as many as 12 points in the second half. The Lady Ospreys, however, rallied to outscore KSU 12-3 over the final 7:39 of play.

UNF's comeback started after Henderson gave the Lady Owls a 10-point lead with 7:57 to play. Moore answered that with a jumper on the other end before Sheffield scored the next six points for the Lady Ospreys to make it a 46-44 contest.

Jennifer Bowen missed her first 10 shots of the night, but came through when it mattered the most, cashing in on a Moore pass with a layup on the other end of the court. Henderson answered that with a jumper and Kennesaw State forced a Sheffield travel on the other end of the court before the Lady Ospreys eventually sent Ashley Johnson to the line with 25 seconds to play.

Kennesaw State hit 11-of-15 free throws on the night, compared to UNF, which hit only 4-of-12. It was a critical miss by Johnson, however, that gave the Lady Ospreys the ball back with a one-point deficit. Moore finally made the Lady Owls pay after dishing the ball off to Syquio on the right base line and collecting her missed shot for an easy put-back and the win.

KSU got a similar look at the basket from the baseline on the other end of the court, but Greteya Kelley's 3-point attempt sailed long and Henderson couldn't get the rebound by a host of UNF defenders.

“I flashed back to a similar play we had against them a year ago,” Tappmeyer said. “I decided to go with a zone defense and they were able to beat us. This time around I stayed away from the zone and decided not to over-coach the final play.”

The move paid off and helped the Lady Ospreys snap a four-game losing streak to Kennesaw State.

With the exception of Henderson's 15 rebounds, UNF controlled the boards and the paint. The Lady Ospreys outrebounded KSU 48-35 and scored 38 of their 50 points in the paint.

Moore finished the game with nine points, while Guldager followed her with eight. Six of Sheffield's nine rebounds came on the offensive end, while she set a career-high with five blocks. UNF tallied eight blocks in all, with seven of those coming in the first half.

UNF is will close out the 2007-08 season with a pair of road games, traveling to Stetson on Thursday before ending up the season at Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday.