University of North Florida
Prairie View A&M
Ospreys Swoop Past Prairie View, 84-66
11/23/2010 2:07:39 PM | Men's Basketball
Final Game Book
PLAYA del CARMEN, Mexico -- Led by career high performances from Jerron Granberry and Jimmy Williams Tuesday morning, the North Florida men's basketball team soared past Prairie View A&M, 84-66, and advanced to the championship game of the Cancun Challenge.
Granberry, a sophomore, finished with 20 points including a perfect 6-for-6 shooting from the three-point line to pace the UNF (2-3) offense. Williams, a junior transfer, went 3-for-3 from long range on his way to 19 points. Matt Sauey also tallied double digits for UNF with 12 points.
Jeff Wherry hit four treys to lead the Panthers (1-5) in scoring with 16 points.
UNF was “en fuego” from the floor shooting 59 percent (30-51) for the game including a blistering 11-of-17 performance from long distance. The Ospreys earned a 39-29 rebounding advantage and collected 17 assists.
“Jerron and Jimmy really shot the ball extremely well today,” said Driscoll. “I was proud of our fight today but I was disappointed in the fact that we gave up some late baskets. Our guys coming off the bench have to give us better support than that because we are going to need those guys. I thought our guys did a good job of sharing the sugar today because anytime you can have assists on over 50 percent of your baskets than that means you are doing some good things. It was good to get the first game out of the way and we are obviously excited to have the opportunity to play for a championship on Wednesday afternoon.”
The Ospreys got rolling early scoring the first six points of the contest. Prairie View did not score its first point until a free throw just over three minutes into play and trailed by double figures, 23-13, following a Granberry trey at the 7:30 mark of the first half.
UNF used strong shooting and solid defense to control the tempo of the game in the first half. North Florida held a 43-29 advantage at halftime after closing the period with a 12-4 run over the final three minutes.
North Florida shot 64 percent (16-25) in the opening stanza with half of its buckets coming from beyond the three-point line. UNF was 8-of-11 (73 percent) on treys in the first half with Granberry (5) and Williams (2) combining for seven of them.
The Ospreys extended their lead to 20 points (49-29) after netting the first six points of the second half and maintained a 20-point margin for much of the remainder of the game. UNF's largest lead of 30 points (83-53) came with 4:08 left before PV closed the game with a 13-1 spurt for the final deficit.
The 84-point output was the highest scoring total in the regular season for UNF in the Matthew Driscoll era and marked the third highest game tally in the program's Division I history. It marked the most points for an Osprey team since a 90 point outing against Jacksonville on Jan. 25, 2006.
The Ospreys will face Morgan State Wednesday at 4 p.m. (ET) for the championship of the Mayan Division.
