Women's Basketball Stumbles at Florida Gulf Coast

Saturday, January 7

Fort Myers, Fla.

7:30 pm

University of North Florida

-510, 22 ASun

Florida Gulf Coast

-132, 50 ASun

UNF

Florida Gulf Coast

1/7/2012 9:46:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

Box score (PDF)
Complete Book

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Although University of North Florida women's basketball team became the fifth team to hold Florida Gulf Coast to under 70 this season, the Eagles defeated the Ospreys 68-34 on Saturday night at Alico Arena.

Fabiola Josil led the Ospreys (5-10, 2-2 Atlantic Sun) with eight points and six assists. Jasmine Hicks grabbed a team-best four rebounds.

Kelsey Jacobson and Sarah Hansen paced the Eagles (13-2, 5-0 Atlantic Sun) with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Eglah Griffin pulled down a game-best five rebounds.

UNF shot 30.0 percent for the game, going 15-50 from the field, while Florida Gulf Coast was 50.0 percent (26-for-52) from the field and 42.3 percent from three-point range (11-for-26). The Eagles also held a 35-27 rebounding advantage.

UNF and Florida Gulf Coast battled back and forth through a majority of the first half. Three ties and 16 baskets –all of which were jumpers or layups – occurred in the first 12:03. With the Eagles up by 4 early, a 5-0 run put UNF up 5-4 at 16:13. The Eagles and the Ospreys traded baskets before a made Sarah Hansen foul shot evened the game at 7-7. Another basket trade forced the game to be tied at 9-9 at 13:27.

The Eagles went up by four behind Courtney Chihil and Hansen layups, but Josil had both a jumper and a layup to tie the game at 13-all with 7:57 left. However, a 14-4 run by the Eagles allowed them to take a 27-17 lead at 1:45. Brittany Kirkland had a layup at 1:23 that brought the Ospreys to within eight, but a Hansen foul shot allowed Florida Gulf Coast to take a nine-point, 28-19 advantage into halftime. It was just the second time this season in which Florida Gulf Coast entered halftime with a single-digit lead.

In the second half, cold shooting plagued the Ospreys for much of the half while the Eagles had eight of their 11 three-pointers come in the final 20 minutes. Florida Gulf Coast got the first five points of the half before a Jasmine Hicks layup at 16:45 made it a 33-21 game in favor of the Eagles. However, UNF saw Florida Gulf Coast pull away behind several runs. The Eagles ultimately led by as many as 38 on several occasions, including at 1:18. UNF got a layup from Destinee Smith and two made free throws from Megan Peterson in the final 41 seconds to close out the game.

UNF returns to action on Monday when the Ospreys travel to Stetson. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.