Game Notes (pdf)JACKSONVILLE -- The North Florida basketball team tips off the home portion of their Atlantic Sun Conference schedule Saturday against crosstown rival Jacksonville at 7 p.m. in UNF Arena. The game, which is part of the River City Rumble competition, is sponsored by Bank of England and is being carried on ESPN3 and 92.5 FM. The Ospreys (12-6, 1-0) opened their Atlantic Sun Conference ledger with an impressive 97-79 road victory over Stetson on Wednesday. UNF used a 59-point barrage in the second half to break open a closely contested first half of play. North Florida, the nation's leading three-point shooting squad, connected on 12 treys against the Hatters, upping their season total to 222. Junior Dallas Moore leads North Florida and the conference in scoring at 20.2 points per game,
Jacksonville has won three of their last four contests and enter the match-up at 8-9 on the season. Saturday's game marks the Atlantic Sun opener for the Dolphins. Senior Kori Babineaux tops the JU offense and ranks second in the conference with a 17.8 PPG scoring average.
Saturday's game features three of the nation's top six players for three-pointers made as JU's Darius Dawkins has made a national best 64 followed closely by UNF's Trent Mackey with 62 while the Osprey's Beau Beech ranks sixth with 54.The game is part of the annual River City Rumble competition between the UNF and JU athletic departments. The Ospreys lead this year's competition 4-2 and have claimed the Old Wooden Barrel for four consecutive seasons.
Following the JU game, North Florida continues its current three-game home stand next Thursday (Jan. 14) by hosting Lipscomb.
QUICK HITS- UNF and Jacksonville will be meeting for the 24th time in program history with JU owning a 15-8 advantage in the all-time series- North Florida has enjoyed recent success having won 4 straight and 7 of the last 9 // JU claimed 13 of first 14 meetings between the two programs- UNF trails 6-4 for games played in UNF Arena but have won last 2 including a 77-50 victory last season- Ospreys have won their last 6 Atlantic Sun home openers and are 6-5 all-time in league home debuts- UNF owns a program record 14-game home win streak // Tied for 19th longest active home streak in nation- North Florida currently ranked 22nd in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 - Trent Mackey needs just 2 points to reach 1,000 for his collegiate career- The UNF-JU game has produced 7 of the 10 largest crowds in UNF Arena history
