Sophomore guard Jaylen Smith scored a career-high 22 points. Still, the UNF men’s basketball team fell short in an 84-90 loss to the University of North Alabama Lions on a Saturday afternoon inside UNF Arena.
Despite a ten-point UNF first-half lead, UNA wore down the Ospreys in the paint, scoring over half its points near the basket. A strong end to the first half and a fast start to the second half thwarted the Ospreys’ late-game comeback bid.
First Half
Like the previous two games, the Ospreys continued its streaky start from three-point land, shooting 4-7 from three at the first media timeout. Smith scored 11 of North Florida’s first 13 points, with nine points coming from beyond the arc. This resulted in a 16-9 Osprey lead with just under 15 minutes left in the first half.
Both teams traded layups and jumpers, prompting a 21-13 UNF lead that was capped off by a Liam Murphy three with 12 minutes left. After UNF extended its lead to 10, the Ospreys largest of the game, North Alabama began methodically chipping away.
The Lions went on a 12-3 run, scoring most of its points in the paint, reducing North Florida’s lead to one. A Smith layup extended the Ospreys lead back to three, but UNF followed by going on a nearly four-minute scoring drought.
North Alabama took advantage of North Florida’s cold spell by going on a 10-0 run over four minutes. The Ospreys field goal drought continued for nearly seven minutes, leading to a 47-34 UNA advantage with just under two minutes left in the opening half.
Jasai Miles sunk a three to erase UNF’s field goal drought, and the Ospreys ended the half by reducing the UNA lead to single digits. North Florida headed to the locker room trailing 47-39.
Second Half
UNA opened the second half with the same offensive intensity; the only difference was shot selection. The Lions knocked down a trio of three-pointers to open the final frame, forcing a UNF timeout with 16 minutes remaining. UNA controlled the next nine minutes of the game, with its largest lead being 17 points. Trailing 81-68 with six minutes to go, the Ospreys slowly reduced UNA’s lead.
Smith poured in a three-pointer, followed by back-to-back Miles’ layups, fueling an 11-2 UNF run that was capped off with a Murphy trey. Miles rained two free throws to finish a 22-7 UNF run that reduced North Alabama’s lead to one possession with 47 seconds remaining.
However, a three-point play by UNA’s Taye Fields silenced North Florida’s valiant rally. Following the game, head coach Matthew Driscoll spoke about the difficulty of comebacks.
“But the problem is, if you get down, it’s hard to come back,” Driscoll said.
“You cannot put yourself in a position where you have to fight so hard and be so perfect so to speak,” Driscoll added.
Miles also noted how difficult it is to complete a comeback while citing the need for stops and scores.
“Towards the end of the game when we needed both a stop and a score, we couldn’t put both together,” Miles said.
UNF outscored North Alabama 39-22 during the first eight minutes of the first half and the last six minutes of the second half. However, UNA outscored the Ospreys by a much larger clip for most of the middle part of the game. Driscoll wants to “harness” the moments where UNF succeeded.
“We’ve got to figure out the first eight and the last eight, harness them together but continue to nurture, encourage, and get these seeds to grow,” Driscoll said.
Most of the stats between the two teams were relatively even, with one stat discrepancy being points in the paint. UNA outscored UNF 58-26 near the basket. UNA was running a “direct drive”, which is the “hardest thing to guard”, according to Driscoll.
“That direct line drive just crushed us,” Driscoll said.
UNF falls to 2-4 in ASUN play, while UNA improves to 4-2 within the conference.
The Ospreys will travel to Charlotte, North Carolina, to face Queens. Tip-off is Thursday at 7 p.m. inside Curry Arena
___
For more information or news tips, or if you see an error in this story or have any compliments or concerns, contact editor@unfspinnaker.com.
