Jones' Buzzer Beater Lifts Women's Hoops Over JU; UNF No. 4 in A-Sun Tournament

Saturday, February 25

Jacksonville, Fla

1 pm

University of North Florida

13-16, 10-8

Jacksonville

10-19, 8-10

Team	1	2	F
North Florida	14	32	46
Jacksonville	26	18	44

Photo by: JC Ridley

Jones' Buzzer Beater Lifts Women's Hoops Over JU; UNF No. 4 in A-Sun Tournament

2/25/2012 3:27:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

By: North Florida Athletics

Boxscore (PDF)
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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Junior Larkira Jones' layup beat the buzzer and University of North Florida women's basketball rallied from a 12-point deficit with less than 10 minutes remaining to defeat crosstown rival Jacksonville 46-44 and secure the No. 4 seed in the General Shale Atlantic Sun Women's Basketball Championships.

“I'm proud of how we battled today,” said head coach Mary Tappmeyer. “You have to give credit to Jacksonville's defense because they kept us from shooting the ball well. Our big players struggled. But Kira made the basket that she needed to make and our defense limited Jacksonville to 18 points in the second half. The fan support we had today was tremendous and they were our sixth man down the stretch.”

Brittany Kirkland led the Ospreys (13-16, 10-8 Atlantic Sun) with 12 points, while Raneisha Lamar and Jones tallied 13 and 10 rebounds, respectively.

Abril Peeple scored a team-best 11 points – all in the first half – for the Dolphins (10-19, 8-10) . Bell had a team-best eight boards.

UNF shot just 23.7 percent for the game, going 14-for-59, but were 76.2 percent from the foul line (16-for-21). The Ospreys dominated on rebounds, 52-36.

Jacksonville shot 32.1 percent (18-for-56) from the floor.

Poor shooting plagued the Ospreys throughout the first half. UNF led by as many as four when Taylor Smith converted on a three-point play to put the Ospreys up 9-5 at 13:36. However, Jacksonville answered with an 11-1 run to go up 16-10 on a Peeples trey at 5:57. UNF cut the Dolphins' lead down to four behind a Kirkland jumper at 5:31, but Jacksonville outscored the Ospreys 10-2 in the final 5:15 to take a 26-14 lead into halftime.

Both teams battled for control of the second half. The Dolphins led by as many at 14 early in the half, but UNF kept chiseling at Jacksonville's lead, pulling to within nine on a Taylor Smith layup at 13:10 that made it 34-25. Jacksonville regained a pair of 12-point leads, including at 9:27 with a jumper from Bell to make it 39-27.

A layup from Lamar at 9:02 was the start of UNF's rally that saw the Ospreys outscore the Dolphins 19-5. The rally began with a 7-0 run that allowed the Ospreys to come to within five on another Lamar layup, this time at 6:34. Jacksonville pushed its lead to eight twice, including at 4:31 with a jumper from Jane'l Osborne that made it 44-36.

UNF scored 10 unanswered points to end the game. Octavia Langston's jumper at 4:07 was the start of that 10-0 run. Kirkland's trey at 1:51 made it a three-point game. A Jacksonville foul placed Kim Baker on the line and she calmly sank both foul shots as the Dolphins held a one-point lead with 1:20 to go. Forty seconds later, the Dolphins had another critical foul, this time putting Kirkland on the line. She made her first foul shot to deadlock the game at 44-44. Jacksonville had a shot at taking the lead, but missed a three-point shot and UNF got the rebound. Following a quick UNF timeout, Jadhken Kerr found Jones for the game-winning layup.

With the win, the Ospreys clinched the No. 4 seed in the 2012 General Shale Atlantic Sun Women's Basketball Championships and will face No. 5 Kennesaw State. The Ospreys and the Owls square off on in the tournament's first round on Thursday. Game time is set for Noon at Mercer's University Center.