Dolphins' Inside Presence Too Much For @OspreyWBB

Saturday, January 9

Jacksonville, Fla.

1:00 p.m.

University of North Florida

-412, 01 ASun

Jacksonville

-97, 10 ASun

Jacksonville

North Florida

Photo by: Todd Drexler

1/9/2016 3:22:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - North Florida women's basketball did not have an answer for Jacksonville's inside presence as the Ospreys lost 73-39 in the opening game of Atlantic Sun Conference play on Saturday afternoon at UNF Arena.

Junior Claire Ioannidis led the team in scoring with 13 points on 5-for-11 including three treys from the field, while dishing out four assists. Taru Madekivi hit two triples for six points. Despite only putting up four points, sophomore Sierra Shepherd helped out in other ways with a team-best seven boards, four assists and three steals.

UNF (4-12) was outscored in the paint 40-12, while the visitors dominated the glass, grabbing 46 to the Ospreys' 26, with 15 second chance points off 20 offensive boards. Briona Brown pulled down a game-best nine boards, while four others had six or more rebounds.

Jacksonville (9-7) hit the opening basket of the game, but the home team took the lead on a jumper from Karrah Johnson. A three-pointer from Madekivi sparked a 7-2 run to give the Ospreys a 17-8 lead at 2:53. The Dolphins hit just one basket in the final two minutes of the period allowing the Ospreys to take a 21-11 lead into the first break.

It was a tale of two periods though as Jacksonville outscored UNF 21-4 and 18-4 in the next two quarters. In the fourth, back-to-back baskets from freshman Hadley Kiefer shrunk the Dolphins' lead to 56-38 with 5:07 to play, but it was as close as the home team would get for the remainder of the game.

The Ospreys shot 32 percent from the game on 16-for-49, while struggling from long range hitting just 5-of-21. Jacksonville hit 27-of-63 for a 42 percent clip, while going 13-for-19 from the charity stripe.

North Florida now has another week to prepare for the busy conference season as Kennesaw State comes to town on Saturday, Jan. 16 for a 4 p.m. tip. Kennesaw State squeezed out a 55-54 win at Lipscomb.