Josh Brannock, Sports Editor
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After being dismantled in the Atlantic Sun conference championship game last year, the UNF men’s basketball team (7-8, 1-1 A-Sun) looked to gain revenge Jan. 2nd against a Belmont team (10-5, 3-0 A-Sun) that has showed its potential in multiple games this year.
The Ospreys headed into the game 6-0 this season at home and on a two game winning streak. The Bruins came into the game having lost their two of three on the road. Belmont was the consensus pick to repeat their first place finish in the A-Sun this season.
Just like last year, a stronger, bigger and more athletic Belmont team outclassed UNF as they went on to win the game 83-53.
“Give Belmont a ton of credit, I thought after the 14, 15 minute mark they really controlled the game,” head coach Matthew Driscoll said. “I thought that we could have beat Belmont…I am extremely disappointed.” Driscoll continued to go on and describe how the teams experience in these games was not shown in this game.
UNF shot 41.5 percent (22-53) from the field, but shot zero percent (0-8) from the 3 point line. The Ospreys had only one player in double digit scoring for the game, junior guard Parker Smith who led the team with 10.
“I think [Belmont] is the best team in the conference for sure,” Smith said.
When asked about his inability to get open off of screens, Smith felt that if others on the team had gotten hot he would not have had as much defensive pressure on him as there was.
“One of the things that helps with that is if other people are making plays at the same time because they have to guard everyone. I couldn’t get open they played great D tonight.”
When asked about driving in to get pressure off of him from the three point line Smith said Belmont’s defense wouldn’t allow it.
“They were packed in so much, as soon as I got around one guy there was another one right there. They really weren’t guarding our forwards out so there were two forwards in the paint most of the time.”
Belmont came out strong as they hit multiple threes to give the Bruins an early double digit lead. They dominated nearly all 40 minutes of the game leading the second half by 20+ points for majority of the time.
Senior center Scott Saunders used all of his 6-10 frame to lead all players in scoring with 16, five more than his 11.1 average for the season, and in rebounds with 9. Senior forward Mick Hedgepeth continued his dominance over the Ospreys as he scored 13 points for Belmont.
The Bruins were able to shoot 40.9 percent (9-22) from beyond-the-arc and 48.4 percent (31-64) from the field. Coming in to the game Belmont was shooting 46.5 percent from the field and 34.7 percent from beyond the three point line.
“We didn’t get consecutive stops on defense,” Driscoll said when he explained why Belmont had 22 shots from three compared to just eight from UNF.
UNF will look to bounce back Jan. 4th as they host A-Sun conference member Lipscomb. Driscoll showed confidence in his team to be prepared for the game.
“One good thing about our guys, and they even said it in the locker room, [they] don’t let one loss lead to two.”
