Women's Basketball Suffers 54-37 Setback to Belmont

Monday, January 2

Jacksonville, Fla.

5:30 pm

University of North Florida

-49, 11 ASun

Belmont

-311, 21 ASun

Belmont

North Florida

1/2/2012 8:10:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

Boxscore
Complete Book

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The University of North Florida women's basketball team fell 54-37 to Belmont on Monday night at UNF Arena.

Fabiola Josil scored a team-best nine points, while grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out four assists. Larkira Jones pulled down a game-best 11 boards.

Haley Nelson led Belmont with a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double. Molly Ernst chipped in with a game-best 17 points.

UNF (4-9, 1-1 Atlantic Sun) shot 24.1 percent (13-for-54) for the game, but won the rebound battle 42-31.

Belmont made 21-of-47 of its shots en route to going 44.7 percent from the floor.

UNF had to contend with a hot-shooting Belmont team in the first half. The Bruins shot 62.5 percent (15-for-24), including 58.3 percent from three-point range (7-for-12). The Ospreys saw Belmont jumped out to an early 10-1 lead through the game's first five minutes. UNF cut the Bruins' lead down to seven with a Brittany Kirkland layup at 11:42 that made it 16-9. However, Belmont pulled away with a 12-1 run to go up by 18 as Amara Mayers' three-pointer put Belmont up 28-10 with 6:51 left in the half. The Ospreys trimmed Belmont's cushion down to 13 on two occasions, including with a Josil layup at 1:59 to make it 33-20. Belmont got two baskets in the closing 1:12 in order to take a 37-20 advantage into halftime.

In the second half, Belmont pushed its lead to 20 early on, but five-straight points allowed UNF to pull to within 15 as the Bruins held a 42-27 advantage with 13:38 to go. That was the closest the Ospreys could get for the remainder of the game as Belmont took several 19-point advantages before winning by a 17-point margin.

UNF returns to action on Wednesday evening when the Ospreys host Lipscomb in the first game of a doubleheader with UNF's men's basketball team. Tip-off for the women's game is set for 5:30 p.m.