RIVER CITY RUMBLE: First round goes to UNF, 83-68
Jacksonville SportsDay
Jacksonville University dropped their opening Atlantic Sun Conference men's basketball game of the season Saturday night losing the first round of the River City Rumble 83-68 to North Florida.
The Ospreys (12-6, 1-0) were led by senior Demarcus Daniels who matched a career high with 22 points, while also pulling down 10 rebounds.
Chris Davenport also tallied a double-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds. UNF also got double digit performances from Dallas Moore (13), Nick Malonga (13) and Aaron Bodager (11).
"We guarded extremely well tonight," said head coach Matthew Driscoll. "I felt like our preparation was the difference in the game. We had some great practices earlier this week and the guys executed our game plan."
The Dolphins (8-9, 0-1) saw a game-high 30 points from Kori Babineaux. Babineaux was 13 of 29 from the floor while collecting seven rebounds. Darius Dawkins had 17 points, hitting 4-9 treys, and Marcel White had 15 points on 6-10 shooting.
The Dolphins shot 39.4 percent from the floor and made four of their 21 three-point attempts.
"We executed our defense and forced UNF to rely on its bench for scoring, which is what we wanted to do," said JU head coach Tony Jasick. "Give credit to UNF. Their role players responded in a big way."
GAME NOTES: UNF led 33-22 at the half....Babineaux's 30 points were one off a career-best, set earlier this year against FSU...JU came out at halftime to put together a 10-0 run....Jacksonville won the battle in the paint, 38-36..UNF senior Trent Mackey collected the 1,000th point of his collegiate career after hitting a three-pointer in the second half.....attendance was 5,807...UNF's Beau Beech fouled out at 7:30 mark of the second half....The Ospreys extended their home win streak to 15 games...UNF has now won eight of the last 10 meetings between.
JU WOMEN WIN: JU got off to a good start in conference play and the River CityRumble with a 73-39 victory at North Florida. The Dolphins outscored in the paint (40-12), off turnovers (23-11), second chance (15-9), fast break (6-0) and off the bench (30-9). The Dolphins also finished with 15 steals and out rebounded the hosts, 46-26. Christin Mercer led the visitors with 17 points and added seven rebounds. Briona Brown recorded 16 points and nine rebounds while Sherranda Reddick had 12 points with five steals. UNF 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
