Northwestern's 14 3-pointers Help Shoot Down Ospreys

Wednesday, December 16

Evanston, Ill.

9 p.m.

University of North Florida

1-6

Northwestern

8-1

North Florida

Northwestern

Freshman Jerron Granberry

12/17/2009 12:34:36 AM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

UNF faces Marquette Saturday at 2 p.m. ET in Milwuakee

Box Score

EVANSTON, Ill. – The University of North Florida men's basketball team ran into a hot-shooting Northwestern team dropping an 84-54 decision Wednesday, Dec. 16, at Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Northwestern shot lights out in the game, hitting 14 3-pointers and shooting 50 percent from the field (30-60) and 3-point range (14-28).

North Florida is 1-6 on the year and 0-2 in Atlantic Sun Conference play, while Northwestern improves to 8-1 on the season. The Ospreys have now played six of their first seven games on the road, including games at Notre Dame (Big East), Illinois State (Missouri Valley), Alabama (SEC) and now Northwestern (Big Ten).

The first half saw both teams come out firing on all cylinders from the field with North Florida shooting 60 percent and Northwestern 58.6 percent. The teams also combined to hit 12-18 from 3-point range, with the Wildcats hitting 9-12 (75 percent) and UNF 3-6 (50 percent). Neither team missed a free throw with UNF hitting 6-6 and NU 2-2.

The Ospreys were within one, 30-29, with 5:27 left in the first half, but NU went on a 15-4 run to end the half with a 45-33 lead. Foul trouble plagued UNF's leading scorer, senior Stan Januska, in the first half, as he picked up two fouls in the first 4:07 of the game and his third with 5:53 left before the break. He only played nine minutes because of the foul trouble.

Picking up the scoring slack in Januska's absence in the first half was freshman Jerron Granberry with 12 and junior Brad Huagabrook with nine.

The beginning of the second half saw Northwestern continue its run and torrid shooting, and saw the Ospreys go cold. The Wildcats started the half on a 14-2 run to extend its lead to 24 points and the Ospreys would not get closer than 20 the rest of the way.

Granberry led UNF with 16 points, matching his career high, and was tied for the team lead with four rebounds. Haugabrook also matched his career high with nine. Eni Cuka was the only other Osprey in double figure scoring with 10.

North Florida shot 46.3 percent for the game (19-41) and 33 percent from 3-point range (5-15). Turnovers again hurt the Ospreys as they committed 23.

“We battled and fought hard the first 15 minutes, doing the things that we talked about in order to win the game” said North Florida head coach Matthew Driscoll. “Understand we are not coming into these games to be close, we play the games to win. We have a lot of improvement obviously, but turnovers and guarding the 3-point line need corrected immediately. The best news is we get to jump it up again in two days.”

The game at Northwestern was the fifth game of a nine game road swing for North Florida before returning home Dec. 30 at face Palm Beach Atlantic. It was also the beginning of five games in eight days for the Ospreys that continues at Marquette on Saturday, Dec. 19, at 2 p.m. ET, before the team heads to Gulfport, Miss. UNF will participate in the South Mississippi Classic Dec. 21-23, playing Canisius (Dec. 21 at 5:30 p.m. ET), New Orleans (Dec. 22 at 5:30 p.m. ET) and Southern Miss. (Dec. 23 at 8 p.m. ET).

A season ticket for basketball is $120 and includes all men's and women's home games, a total of 28 games on 19 event dates, including nine Atlantic Sun Conference double headers. A special rate is available for UNF Alumni ($110) and UNF Faculty and Staff ($105). A Family 4-pack is also available for the season at $360. Select seating areas require an Osprey Club membership (per seat donation).

Single-game pricing is $10 for adults and $8 for youth 17-and-under and senior citizens 55-and-older. Children 2-and-under and any current UNF student with a valid Osprey1 Card are admitted free. Student guest passes are $5 and limited to one per student.

For more information or to purchase basketball season tickets call 904-620-BIRD (2473) or email ospreytickets@unf.edu.