First Half Costly as Women's Hoops Falls at Northern Kentucky

Thursday, February 28

Highland Heights, Ky.

5 p.m.

University of North Florida

10-18, 6-11

Northern Kentucky

14-12, 11-6

North Florida

Northern Kentucky

First Half Costly as Women's Hoops Falls at Northern Kentucky

2/28/2013 9:16:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

Boxscore (PDF)

HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – A cold first half doomed University of North Florida women's basketball in its 57-44 loss to Northern Kentucky at the Bank of Kentucky Center on Thursday evening.

Destinee Smith and Ki Conner scored 16 and 15 points, respectively for the Ospreys. Raneisha Lamar grabbed 12 rebounds.

Christine Roush had a game-high 18 points for the Norse, while Rianna Gayheart added in 13. Kayla Thacker pulled down 11 boards.

Northern Kentucky out-shot and out-rebounded UNF. The Norse were 36.5 percent (19-for-52) from the floor and had 41 rebounds. UNF shot 30.8 percent (20-for-65) and had 40 boards.

The Ospreys were just 14.8 percent from the field in the first half, getting only four field goals, including one trey. After a slow start that saw UNF get its first point on a Conner layup at 15:58, the Ospreys experienced a 12-minute scoring drought that saw Northern Kentucky take a 21-point lead. Smith finally broke the Ospreys' dry spell, hitting a three-pointer at 3:55. UNF added five more points before the close of the half as Northern Kentucky took a 28-10 lead going into the break.

UNF chipped away at Northern Kentucky's lead in the second half and used an early 12-2 run to cut its deficit down to 11. A jumper by Smith at 14:00 made it 35-24. After the Norse got up to 14 points, UNF brought it back down to an 11-point game at 11:40 on a Fabiola Josil converted on a layup and then a foul shot to make it 40-29.

However, Northern Kentucky pulled even further away behind a 10-4 spurt and took a 17-point, 50-33 advantage at 4:25 on a Roush layup. Although UNF was able to bring the deficit back down to 11 points on a Conner layup with 20 seconds left, Thacker made it a 13-point win for Northern Kentucky when she made a layup with 10 seconds to go.

UNF finishes out the regular season on Saturday at Lipscomb. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m., EST/6 p.m. CST from Allen Arena.