University of North Florida
Jacksonville
Ospreys Fly Over Dolphins, 58-44
1/27/2011 10:24:45 PM | Women's Basketball
BOXSCORE
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Shooting 50 percent from the field while holding JU to just 34.6 percent, the University of North Florida women's basketball team downed crosstown, Atlantic Sun Conference rival Jacksonville, 58-44 on Thursday night. It marked the first meeting of the season between the two teams in the annual River City Rumble “Battle of the Barrel.”
The Ospreys (7-12, 5-5 A-Sun) were led by junior Brittany Kirkland with 24 points on 8-of-16 from the field including 2-of-5 from outside the arc. Kirkland also connected on 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Senior Juliemay Syquio added 10 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out five assists. Sophomore Larkira Jones pulled down a career-high tying 15 rebounds.
“We did some really good things tonight defensively,” said head coach Mary Tappmeyer. “Even when we couldn't score, we stayed focused on getting stops on the other end. I thought that Kira [Larkira Jones] owned the glass tonight and Julie[may Syquio] put together a really solid performance tonight and played a key role for us with 10 points, six rebounds, five assists and just one turnover.”
JU (9-10, 4-6 A-Sun) was led by Gigi Thomas with 20 points. Lynsey Paschal added eight points while Taneskei Richardson grabbed seven rebounds.
Both teams kept it close to open the game and were tied at 15 with 11:48 on the clock. UNF went up by three and led 21-18 with 8:10 left in the half, but both teams went on a scoring draught over the next two minutes until the Dolphins' Thomas hit a jumper at the 6:21 mark. That would prove to be the last basket of the half for JU as UNF closed out the half with eight unanswered points, taking a 29-20 lead into the break.
Coming out of the intermission the Ospreys extended their lead to 12, (35-23) after four minutes of play. JU got the lead down to nine (39-30) with 12:51 on the clock, but the Dolphins would never get closer as UNF went on a 10-3 run to extend its lead to 49-33 with 7:50 left in the game. The Ospreys took their largest lead with a minute forty-two left, up 17 (58-41) off a three pointer from Kirkland.
The Ospreys connected on 22-of-44 from the field while the Dolphins hit just 18-of-52 from the field and 9.1 percent (1-of-11) from outside. UNF connected on 2-of-5 from outside the arc for 40 percent. The Ospreys pulled down 34 rebounds to just 27 by the Dolphins. UNF scored 21 points off turnovers to 16 by JU and the Ospreys also scored 30 points in the paint to JU's 24.
UNF will be back on the court on Saturday, Jan. 29 when it hosts Campbell in a 4:30 p.m. game at UNF Arena.
