FLORENCE, Ala. - North Florida women's basketball played close through three quarters with North Alabama, but fell late in the game to fall in a 65-54 result on the road on Saturday evening.

The Ospreys were tied, 27-27, at the half, but were outscored in the final two quarters by 11 points. Helena Rafnsdottir led a trio of Ospreys who scored in double figures, followed with Jasmynne Gibson notching 11 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double performance.

UNA 65, UNF 54

RECORDS

North Florida | 4-15, 0-6
North Alabama | 9-8, 4-2

BEYOND THE BOX SCORE

First Half: Sydney Pettis entered the starting lineup and put up the first points for the Ospreys to go up by two...after a fast-break score from Sarah Taub, Gibson nailed a three-pointer to put the early lead at three...Rafnsdottir set up back-to-back scores with Stinson making a trey to go into the second period up one...after a short drought, Spencer and Taub put together five straight points to tie the game at 20-20...Spencer drilled another three-pointer, but Rougier hit a buzzer-beater on another fast-break to go into the break tied with the Lions.

Second Half: Spencer broke an 8-0 run from UNA out of the half with a score...Gibson hit another three-pointer in the third quarter to cut the deficit to four points...back-to-back scores from Rafnsdottir was enough to go into the final period with a 44-39 score...Rafnsdottir scored her third straight field goal for the Ospreys to make it a one possession game right out of the gate in the fourth quarter...Spencer made her third trey, followed with a layup from Rougier...Rafnsdottir and Gibson added late scores to reach double figures, but UNA took the game, 65-54.

LEADERS BY THE NUMBERS

UNF
Helena Rafnsdottir | 12 points, 5 rebounds
Jazmine Spencer | 11 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals
Jasmynne Gibson | 10 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists

UNA
Sara Wohlgemuth | 16 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals
Charity Gallegos | 11 points, 3 assists
India Howard | 10 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals

COACH'S THOUGHTS

"A lot of this game was played pretty evenly. I thought we had a slow start, but we were fortunate to be tied at the half. As a team, myself included, we have to learn to close out games. We were down two possessions going into the fourth quarter and did not execute to close the gap. The difference in the game came down to two things: they crashed the boards like they wanted to win more than us, and they made more shots in the paint. We only scored 35% of our interior shots and that number should be 50% plus."
-- head coach Erika Lambert

NOTES

• Rafnsdottir notched her third game of the season as the sole points leader for the Ospreys.
• Gibson earned her 12th game, including back-to-back, of being the team leader on the boards.
• The freshman put together her sixth double-digit game and her third-career double-double game.
• Spencer continued to add points for UNF with her third straight game in double figures.
• Taub was a steals menace with five steals for the second time in five conference games.

UP NEXT

North Florida returns home for another weekend of home basketball starting with Queens on Thursday, Jan. 23, with tip-off set for 7 p.m., at UNF Arena.