University of North Florida
Pittsburgh
North Florida Falls to No. 22 Pittsburgh
11/17/2009 2:00:01 PM | Women's Basketball
Pitt was the second nationally ranked team that UNF has faced in the past four days. The Ospreys opened the season at No. 12/15 ranked
Leading the Ospreys (0-2) was freshman forward Jadhken Kerr with nine points. Sophomore guard Brittany Kirkland added seven points, while senior forward Arlande Cherizol tallied seven rebounds.
For the Panthers (1-0) Chelsea Cole led with 14 points. Taneisha Harrison and Shayla Scott both had 11 points. Katie Popovec had a game-high nine rebounds.
Both teams got off to a slow offensive start in the opening half with Pitt holding the 6-2 lead until Cole hit a jumper at the 14:52 mark to spark a 6-0 Panther run, giving them the 12-2 lead with 12:12 left in the half. The Ospreys cut the lead down to five with a three from Jadhken Kerr and a wide open jumper from Arlande Cherizol to close the gap 12-7. That is as close as the Ospreys would get as Pitt closed out the half outscoring UNF 13-6 to take a 25-13 lead into the break.
"The first half we executed our game plan really well," said head coach Mary Tappmeyer. "We held them to 25 points and most of those were on offensive put backs and three point plays. But we were able to hold them with our defensive plan. In the first half our team realized they could play with them."
Pitt continued its run into the second half, taking control early. The Panthers took their largest lead of the game, up 29 at (46-17) at the 11:46 mark. Pitt's size was too much for the Ospreys as the Panthers outrebounded UNF 26-12 in the second half.
The Panthers tallied 34 points in the paint to the Ospreys' eight. Pitt had 44 rebounds in the game to UNF's 27.
UNF will be back on the court on Saturday, Nov. 21 when it travels to
"In the second half I think our youth got to us," Tappmeyer said. "They were able to get some big plays that gave them the momentum in the second half and we stopped doing some of the things that we were doing well during the first half of the game."
