By Jordan Harirchi, Asst. Sports Editor

Email Jordan at asst.sports@unfspinnaker.com

Follow @spinnakersports

After giving up only 23 points in the first half, the UNF men’s basketball team gives up 41 in the second and loses.

The Ospreys (9-11, 3-4 Atlantic Sun) lost 64-63 to East Tennessee State University (10-7, 5-2 A-Sun) at UNF Jan. 16. The whole team played well on both sides in the first half but couldn’t continue its success in the second.

The Ospreys’ three-point shooting highlighted the first half. Junior guards Parker Smith and Jerron Granberry accounted for all of the Ospreys’ threes, going 5-10.
Defensively, the Ospreys were top-notch in the first half. The team held the Buccaneers to zero for five from the three-point line and a 31.3 field goal percentage. The Ospreys went into halftimeahead 34-23.

The Ospreys were efficient on offense, but the team couldn’t keep up the intensity on defense in the second half. The Bucs had a 68 percent field goal percentage and went 2-2 for threes in the second.

ETSU’s senior guard, Adam Sollazzo, after scoring two points in the first half, slicedthrough the Ospreys’ defense in the second. He scored 19 of the Bucs’ 41 second half points.

The Ospreys were up 50-42 with 8:45 remaining in the second half, but the Bucs kept nibbling. The Bucs went on an 11-0 run to go up 53-50 with 6:06 remaining. Aside from a tie with a little over one minute remaining, the Bucs wouldn’t relinquish the lead.

The Osprey’s nearly won the game when Matt Sauey threw a full court pass to Travis Wallace under the basket, but Wallace put a little too much on the shot as it went of the backboard and fell to the floor.

The Ospreys are 1-12 against the Bucs, their only win coming in last year’s A-Sun semifinal. Junior forward David Jeune, who started every game until tonight’s game, played only four minutes the entire game.