UNF searches for ending streak

Saturday, February 28

Nashville, Tenn.

1 p.m.

University of North Florida

Lipscomb University

Junior Shennette Sheffield

2/27/2009 11:25:22 AM | Women's Basketball

Lady Ospreys try to close season with three straight wins

By: Adam Jonson, UNF Athletics

Game Notes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The 2008-09 season and the NCAA reclassification period will come to an end Saturday for the University of North Florida women's basketball team when the Lady Ospreys face their final test with a 1 p.m. ET matchup against Lipscomb.

UNF (8-20, 7-12 A-Sun) will match its best A-Sun finish with a win, tying the eight-win mark it set last season. The Lady Ospreys have won two straight with wins at home against Stetson and on the road at Belmont. Thursday's win at Belmont marked just the second road win of the season for UNF.

Lipscomb (5-23, 3-16) has lost three in a row and sits at the bottom of the league standings. The Lady Bisons are 6-9 on their own hardwood this season and will serve as the host for the 2009 Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament.

The Lady Ospreys overcame a six-point halftime disadvantage in the first meeting between the two, and Bowen flushed a baseline jumper at the buzzer to lift UNF to a 52-51 win in its conference opener. UNF's bench scored 28 points, and the Lady Ospreys committed a season-low 14 turnovers compared to 22 by Lipscomb.

If the season ended today and no teams were ineligible for postseason play due to NCAA reclassification rules, the Lady Ospreys would make their fourth-straight A-Sun Tournament appearance as either the seventh or eighth seed. Currently in eighth, UNF would move into seventh in the conference with a win and a USC Upstate loss to Kennesaw State on Saturday. With league-leading Florida Gulf Coast ineligible like UNF (Kennesaw State and USC Upstate also ineligible), East Tennessee State has wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the tournament and Jacksonville has clinched the second seed. Lipscomb will enter the tournament as the seventh or eight seed (all A-Sun teams not in the NCAA reclassification process will qualify this season).