Ospreys drop first River City Rumble matchup of the year

Video by Kaitlyn Bowers

Zach Yearwood, Sports Reporter

Featured image by: Kaitlyn Bowers

North Florida’s women’s basketball team fought hard but fell to the Jacksonville Dolphins Monday night, 69-60.

“We talk about specific things that we needed to do in order to have success and I honestly don’t think we did any of them,” head coach Darrick Gibbs said.

The Ospreys walked into the game coming off a win on Saturday against North Alabama. They previously beat JU on the road in their first matchup in January.

In the first two quarters, the teams fought back and forth. A run late in the first put the Dolphins ahead by 10. However, the Ospreys were able to cut the lead down to just three by halftime.

What began as a close game quickly got away from UNF in the third quarter. The Dolphins went on a 17-9 run to propel them to an eight point lead going into the fourth.

From there, pressure was on the Ospreys to get back in the game. They brought the game within one possession multiple times, but were unable to pull ahead due to JU’s dynamic scorer, Shakayla Nevitt.

“Honestly at the end, their players just made more plays than we did,” Gibbs said. “I thought we defended some of their actions pretty decent, but they made the plays.”

Nevitt ended the game with 24 points. Dasha Eremeeva led the Ospreys with 15 points, followed by Jazz Bond and Adrienne Jackson who each had 14.

This is UNF’s first loss in any sport in the River City Rumble against rival JU this year.

The Ospreys are now 7-6 in ASUN play and will look to get back on track against Lipscomb at home on Saturday, Feb. 22 at 1:00 p.m. 

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