Women's Basketball Loses Heartbreaker to USC Upstate, 58-57

Saturday, January 14

Jacksonville, Fla.

4:30 pm

University of North Florida

-612 (34 ASun)

USC Upstate

-315 (25 ASun)

USC Upstate

North Florida

1/14/2012 7:04:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

Boxscore (PDF)
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For the second-straight game, it came down to the last two seconds for the University of North Florida women's basketball team. However, Saturday's outcome did not favor the Ospreys as UNF fell 58-57 to USC Upstate at UNF Arena.

Taylor Smith led the Ospreys with 12 points, going 4-for-5 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 from the foul line. Fabiola Josil and Brittany Kirkland each added 10 points. Josil also had a team-best six rebounds.

Briana Robinson, whose jumper at two seconds gave USC Upstate the win, led the Spartans with 20 points. Robinson and Shelby Hicks also grabbed six boards.

UNF held a slight shooting advantage for the game. The Ospreys were 41.5 percent from the floor (22-for-53), while the Spartans were 41.1 percent (23-for-56). Both teams The game was essentially a tale of two halves shooting-wise, with the first-half favoring the Ospreys (52.2 percent; 12-for-23) and the second half the Spartans (50.0 percent; 13-for-26).

In the first half, UNF used an 8-0 run to go up by seven. Kirkland's jumper at 12:01 had UNF ahead 14-7. The Spartans responded with a 19-5 spurt in order to take their own seven point lead. Robinson connected on a pair of free throws at 3:45 to make it 26-19. The Ospreys regained the lead behind another 8-0 run, going up 28-26 on a Jadhken Kerr three-pointer with 1:16 remaining. However, two Robinson free throws with three seconds to go tied the game at 28-28 and that would be the score heading into halftime.

The second half saw UNF and USC Upstate battle of control early on. However, the Spartans had a 9-2 spurt that gave them a seven-point, 45-38 advantage at 9:52. UNF fought back to erase USC Upstate's lead and go up 50-49 on Taylor Smith's layup at 4:56. After a made Spartan foul shot, back-to-back layups by Kirkland and Taylor Smith put UNF ahead 54-50 with 3:38 to go. USC Upstate pulled to within two at 1:04, but Taylor Smith had another layup that returned a four-point advantage to the Ospreys. However, Robinson had a three that brought the Spartans to within one and then clinched USC Upstate's win with a jumper.

UNF returns to the road for its next four games. The Ospreys begin the road trip on Thursday at Kennesaw State. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m., from the KSU Convocation Center.