Ospreys fall short against Stetson

Thursday, February 28

DeLand, Fla.

8:15 PM

University of North Florida

Stetson

Stan Januska led the Ospreys with 19 points

2/28/2008 10:07:13 PM | Men's Basketball

UNF rallies from early deficit but falters late; Januska scores 19

By: Tom Strother, UNF Athletics

BOX SCORE

DELAND, Fla. - Ultimately, the hole proved too deep for the University of North Florida men's basketball team on Thursday night in its 73-56 loss to Stetson.

UNF (3-25, 1-14 A-Sun) battled back to within a point five times in the second half despite opening the game in a 14-0 hole, but the Ospreys fell apart down the stretch -- unable to tie or take the lead on six different opportunities in the second half. Trailing 50- 47 with five minutes to play, UNF turned the ball over on three consecutive possessions to end their final threat of the night. Stetson (15-15, 10-5 A-Sun) erupted for a 19-4 run at that point to win for the seventh straight time in the series.

Stetson's Mark Lohuis scored a career-high 21 points for the Hatters, while Garfield Blair added 19 points. UNF's Stan Januska also tallied a career high with 19 points, including the first 11 of the game for his team.

"We fell behind big and battled back," UNF head coach Matt Kilcullen said. "But when it got late in the game we didn't execute when we had a chance. We didn't show a lot of poise when we needed to make plays. It was a gutty effort by our guys to get back into the game."

UNF shot nearly 70 percent for the first 15 minutes of the second half to rally from a 31-22 halftime deficit but went cold over the final five minutes, hitting just one of eight field goals during Stetson' decisive run. UNF shot 36 percent for the game, while Stetson shot 43 percent. UNF did hit a season-best 14 of 14 from the free throw line.

The Ospreys dug themselves into a seemingly insurmountable hole in the first five minutes, falling behind 14-0 after missing their first nine shots and committing five turnovers.

Then the bizarre happened, with Stetson matching the Ospreys' five-minute scoreless stretch with a seven- minute scoreless stretch of their own. That allowed Januska to explode with 11 straight points and pull the Ospreys within 14-11 with 9:57 remaining before halftime.

Lohuis rattled off four 3-pointers in a three-minute stretch after that -- eclipsing his career high with 14 points in the first half alone -- to push the Hatters back up 13 points, however. A running jumper by Riley sliced UNF's deficit to 31-22 at the intermission.

Riley and Januska scored 20 of UNF's 22 point in the opening half, combining to shoot 8 of 14 from the floor. All other Ospreys were 0 for 13 combined.

In the second half, UNF scored the first five points to pull within 31-28 with 17:34 remaining and trailed by a point for the final time at 46-45 with 10:13 to go.

The Ospreys will close their season on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Fort Myers to face Florida Gulf Coast. Tipoff is set for 7:15 p.m., with the UNF women against FGCU preceding that matchup at 6 p.m.