North Florida Rally Falls Short at Stetson

Saturday, January 9

DeLand, Fla.

3 p.m.

University of North Florida

Stetson

1/9/2010 5:41:19 PM | Women's Basketball

BOX SCORE

DeLAND, Fla. – In a tale of two halves, the University of North Florida women's basketball team came just short of a second half rally, falling 58-56 to Atlantic Sun foe Stetson on Saturday afternoon at the Edmunds Center in DeLand, Fla.

The Ospreys (4-11, 1-5 A-Sun) were down 31-14 at halftime after shooting just 18.5 percent from the field during the opening half. But UNF outscored the Hatters (3-12, 3-3 A-Sun) 42-27 in the second half, shooting 47.4 percent from the field.

“I thought we had an outstanding effort in the second half,” said head coach Mary Tappmeyer. “We got huge production from Kim (Baker) and Margaret (Bell). They gave us a really big boost of the bench. When you're on the road you have to be ready for anything. I thought they got us on our heels. We regrouped at halftime and battled back, but it was a big deficit. We have to learn to be physically tougher in those kinds of games. We took better care of the basketball and got a lot more shot opportunities. Unfortunately we just couldn't hit anything in the first half. We weren't very sharp defensively in the first half, but really locked down and did a much better job in the second half. We knew pressure would bother them.”

Leading UNF was sophomore guard Brittany Kirkland who scored all of her team-leading 12 points in the second half. Kirkland dished out a team-best eight assists. Sophomore guards Kim Baker and Margaret Bell came off the bench to add nine points each, while Bell also tallied seven rebounds. Freshman forward Jadhken Kerr and junior guard Juliemay Syquio also had seven boards each.

“We are getting some quality minutes and production from our bench now which has been a big factor for us, but unfortunately we haven't had a game where everybody is playing well,” said Tappmeyer. “We have games where the guards are playing well or the posts are playing well, but not everyone. Julie really battled in the first half despite not shooting the ball well, but she did a good job getting people involved. I was really proud of how she bounced back from how disappointed she was with her performance at Gulf Coast. I was really pleased with Margaret and I thought she gave us some great energy off the bench and played with a passion which we have to have. We need to have a few more people play with that kind of passion.”

For the Hatters, Tierra Brown had 15 points. Jessica Conner added 14 points and Lyllique Roman notched 10 points. Daphnee Frieson grabbed seven rebounds.

The Hatters dominated the first half and held their largest lead of the game at the 3:33 mark, up 19 (29-10). Back-to-back baskets from Bell would close the gap to 15, but that is as close as the Ospreys would come as Stetson hit another jumper to take a 17 point lead into the break.

The Ospreys came out on firing in the second half, cutting the lead to single digits for the first time since the early minutes of the game at the 14:04 mark off a layup by Kirkland, closing the gap to eight (36-28). Stetson extending its lead back to 15 at 12:27 and again at 11:22, but UNF would not back down and went on a 13-2 run over the next four minutes to pull within four (47-43) with just over seven minutes left in the game.

UNF and Stetson traded baskets over the next several minutes with the Ospreys not allowing the Hatters to go up by more than five at any point. Stetson held a four point lead, 56-52, going into the final minute of play, but a jumper by Syquio pulled the Ospreys to within two with 30 seconds remaining. The Ospreys fouled on the inbounds play and Natasha Graboski missed a pair of shots to give UNF a chance to tie. An offensive foul on the possession gave the ball back to the Hatters. Brown knocked down a pair of charity shots with six seconds left on the clock to put Stetson up four, 58-54. Kirkland drove down the court and connected on a layup as time expired.

The Ospreys protected the ball, tallying their lowest turnover number of the season with 12 while forcing 17 turnovers by the Hatters. Stetson had the slight advantage on the boards with 45 to UNF's 42. North Florida's bench came up big, producing 23 points.

UNF will be back in action on Thursday, Jan. 14, when it hosts Belmont at 5:30 p.m. in UNF Arena. The Ospreys will host Lipscomb on Saturday, Jan. 16, at 4:30 p.m. Both games are doubleheaders with the UNF men's team.