Women's Basketball Tripped Up By Mercer, 56-43

Monday, January 14

Jacksonville, Fla.

7 p.m.

University of North Florida

-710, 33 ASun

Mercer

-97, 32 ASun

Mercer

North Florida

1/14/2013 9:32:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

Boxscore (PDF)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – It was a tough night on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor for the University of North Florida women's basketball team as the Ospreys dropped a 56-43 Atlantic Sun game to Mercer Monday night at UNF Arena.

“Mercer played very well and we did not,” said head coach Mary Tappmeyer. “You have to give credit to them. They shot the ball well and we did not defend. If you're going to allowed someone to shoot 47 percent in your house and you're not going to make shots on the other end, the outcome is not going to be nice. We just did not shoot it well and we did not defend well at all.”

Destinee Smith scored a team-high 10 points – all in the second half – for the Ospreys. Jadhken Kerr and Raneisha Lamar had 12 and 10 rebounds, respectively.

Precious Bridges tallied 23 points, while Kendra Grant added 13 for the Bears. Teanna Robinson pulled down 11 boards.

UNF shot 28.0 percent (14-for-50) from the floor, while Mercer was 47.3 percent (15-for-27) for the night and 55.6 percent (15-for-27) in the second half alone. Both teams grabbed 36 rebounds.

The game started out close. Down by two, Ki Conner hit a pair of treys that put UNF up 12-8 at 10:17 in the first half. After a Grant jumper made it a two-point game, Jadhken Kerr sank another UNF trey to make it 15-10 at 8:45. However, UNF had a costly field goal drought that lasted for the remainder of the first half and into the second half. Mercer finished out the half with a 14-2 run – the Ospreys made a pair of free throws – in order to take a 24-17 lead into the break.

“We got good shots in the first half, we just couldn't knock them in,” said Tappmeyer.

Mercer got out to an early 11-point lead in the second half, but Lamar and Conner each knocked down two free throws to make it a seven-point to make it 28-21 at 15:51. The Bears went up by nine on a Ry'van Buchanan jumper. The Ospreys broke their field goal drought at 15:02 when Shayla Wilson made a lay-up to make it a seven-point game once again.

Mercer started to pull away and was up by 13 when Smith powered a 7-2 run to bring the Ospreys to within eight. Smith's trey at 7:41 capped the run as Mercer held a 44-36 advantage. However, that was the closest the Ospreys could get. Mercer answered with a 6-0 run in order to gain a 14-point lead and maintained a double-digit advantage for the rest of the game.

UNF finishes out a three-game homestand on Saturday when the Ospreys host cross-town rival Jacksonville in this season's first of two SunTrust River City Rumble meetings. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m., from UNF Arena.