Women's Basketball Takes 62-56 Win From ETSU

Saturday, January 26

Johnson City, Tenn.

1:30 p.m.

University of North Florida

-910, 53 ASun

ETSU

-411, 26 ASun

UNF

ETSU

1/26/2013 3:54:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

Boxscore (PDF)

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Junior Ki Conner scored a career-high 23 points and junior Raneisha Lamar posted a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double and the University of North Florida women's basketball team slipped past ETSU 63-56 on Saturday at the MSHA Athletics Center.

“I'm very happy to get a conference road win,” said head coach Mary Tappmeyer. “ETSU is a difficult place to play. We did a good job defensively in the first half, but did not do as well in the second half. ETSU was great on the offensive glass and got 27 points off their 23 offensive boards. We definitely have a few area we need to improve on, but any conference road win is a good win.

“Ki came in and gave us a big boost off the beach,” concluded Tappmeyer. “I love it when our center gets a double-double. Raneisha was a warrior today.”

Cara Bowling and Serena Clark each scored a team-best 14 points, while Destiny Mitchell had a 12-point, 14-rebound performance.

UNF outshot ETSU and held a slim advantage in rebounds. UNF was 39.6 percent (19-for-48), including 47.1 percent (8-for-17) in the second half. ETSU shot 29.6 percent (21-for-71). The Ospreys pulled down 44 rebounds compared to ETSU's 43.

Lamar and Conner powered the Ospreys during the first half. Lamar had four-straight buckets for UNF in order to help the Ospreys to a 13-10 lead at 11:38. UNF went up by five on a Fabiola Josil jumper before ETSU got a jumper from Mitchell and a layup from Tiana Burley to make it a one-point, 15-14 UNF advantage with 9:41 to go.

Conner came alive in the final 9:18, scoring the Ospreys' last 14 points of the half. Conner hit three-straight treys for a 9-0 run, while the defense shut down ETSU's offense and UNF took a 24-10 lead at 5:43. UNF eventually held ETSU scoreless for over six minutes. Shawn Randell ended the Bucs' scoreless stretch, but Conner hit her fourth trey and then a pair of foul shots a minute later as UNF held a 29-16 lead at 1:45. ETSU cut into UNF's lead with a pair of Mitchell free throws at 1:23 and those were the last points of the half as the Ospreys took a 29-18 lead into halftime.

ETSU came out strong in the second half. With UNF up by 12, the Bucs went on a 12-0 run – getting seven-straight points from Clark – in order to force a 34-34 tie at 14:05. A Chandler Merkerson layup and subsequent foul shot broke the tie and then Conner hit a pair of free throws as UNF regained a five-point lead and was up 39-34 at 12:44. ETSU responded with an 8-2 run and went up 42-40 on a Mitchell trey at 9:37.

UNF and ETSU battled it out over the next five-and-a-half minutes, incurring three more ties. With ETSU up by one, Connor made a critical foul shot at 3:54 that not only tied the game at 51-51, but also sparked a key 7-0 run that allowed UNF to go up 57-51 with 58 seconds to go.

Although ETSU eventually cut UNF's lead down to two on a Brianna McQueen three with 16 seconds left, Conner and Merkerson each knocked down two foul shots in the final 13 seconds to seal the win.

UNF returns to action on Monday night at USC Upstate for a 5 p.m., game that will be broadcast live on ESPN3.