University of North Florida
USC Upstate
Kirkland Hits 1,000 Career Points as Ospreys Roll Past Upstate, 91-73
1/15/2011 8:10:46 PM | Women's Basketball
BOXSCORE
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Junior Brittany Kirkland scored her 1,000th career point as she led the Ospreys past USC Upstate, 91-73 in Atlantic Sun Conference action on Saturday afternoon at UNF Arena.
“First off we hope that Madisen [Webb, injured Upstate player] is ok,” said head coach Mary Tappmeyer. “I was really proud of our effort, I thought we really battled and got great contribution from our bench. I thought we shared the ball really well and for the most part we tried to do the best job we could on Chelsea. She's just a force to be reckoned with inside and I think we made her work for her points. We took advantage of our ability to run the floor and got some baskets in transition and that usually jump starts our defense.”
Kirkland hit the 1,000 point mark at 6:34 in the first half on a pair of free throws. The junior guard posted 20 points in the game to lead UNF (4-11, 2-4 A-Sun). Sophomore Jadhken Kerr added 14 points on 5-of-8 from the field including 4-of-7 from behind the three point line. Freshmen Raneisha Lamar and Jade Givens came off the bench to score 13 and 10 points, respectively. Senior Juliemay Syquio grabbed a team-high nine rebounds while Larkira Jones pulled down eight.
The Spartans (7-7, 4-2 A-Sun) were led by Chelsea McMillan with 34 points and 18 rebounds. Kendra Wallace added 15 points. Madisen Webb had nine points before being injured in the second half.
UNF came out strong to open the game, jumping out to an 11 point, 24-13 lead midway through the half. The Ospreys extended their lead to 15 (28-13) with 8:24 on the clock. Upstate went on a run, cutting the lead down to 11 (30-19) with 5:43 left in the half. That is as close as the Spartans would come as UNF took its largest lead of the half, up 45-22 at the 1:28 mark. UNF took a 21 point, 47-26 lead into the break.
Coming out of the break, the Ospreys extended their lead to 29, 57-28 just two minutes into the half. The Ospreys maintained a 20 point lead through most of the second half and were up 77-57 with 6:09 left to play. Upstate went on a 6-0 run over the next two minutes to pull within 14 (77-63) with just over four minutes left, but that is as close as the Spartans would get as UNF claimed the win.
The Ospreys shot 48.4 percent (31-of-64) from the field including 53.8 percent (7-of-13) from behind the arc. Upstate hit 36.2 percent (25-of-69) from the field and 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from three point range. UNF and Upstate were close on the boards with the Ospreys pulling down 42 rebounds to Upstate's 41. UNF tallied 16 steals in the game and scored 32 points off turnovers.
UNF will be back on the court on Monday, Jan. 17 when it hosts East Tennessee State in a rematch of last season's Atlantic Sun Conference title game. Game time is set for 7 p.m. at UNF Arena.
