Box Score

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville State's road struggles continued Sunday with a 63-47 loss at North Florida in the final contest of the 2011 Comfort Inn Holiday Classic, hosted by UNF.

The Gamecocks fall to 3-9 on the season, while the Ospreys improved to 4-7 overall.  Sunday's contest marked the first meeting between the two programs. 

The road setback was the 12th consecutive true road loss away from Pete Mathews Coliseum, which dates back to last season's loss at Austin Peay on Jan.22.

For the third-straight game, JSU dug itself in a hole as the Ospreys jumped out to a 16-4 lead, but it made defensive adjustments and turned it up defensively while the offense came along.  The Gamecocks trimmed the deficit down to four at 16-12 with 6:27 left in the half after an 8-0 scoring run.  UNF finished the final six minutes of the opening period with an answer to Jax State's run as they closed the half on a 10-4 run to take a ten-point, 26-16 lead into the halftime break.

UNF continued its momentum it gained in the final minutes of the opening half to start the final period as it pushed the lead out to 20 points at 43-23 with 12:31 left in the game.  The Ospreys took their largest lead of the game of 22 points on two occasions in the second half.  At the 8:53 mark, UNF held a 51-29 lead and the Gamecocks began to chip away at the deficit.  JSU split the lead down to ten points after a 14-2 scoring run that spanned over five minutes, but that was as close as Jax State would get.

Turnovers continued to plague the Gamecocks as they had 14 of their 23 in the first half, which led to 13 Osprey points.  UNF also had ball control issues with 21 miscues.  The Blue and Gray finished the game scoring xx points off JSU turnovers.

Both squads struggled to find the nets as both teams shot under 40 percent from the field.  JSU finished the game shooting 37 percent (20-of-53), while UNF connected on 33 percent (22-of-65).  The Ospreys owned the glass by out-rebounding the Red and White by a 51-33 margin.

Junior Danielle Vaughn led the JSU offense with ten points and five rebounds before fouling out of the contest with just over four minutes left in the contest.  It was Vaughn's seventh double digit scoring output of the season.  Briana Morrow pitched in eight points and led JSU on the boards with a team-best nine rebounds.  Candace Morton, Destiny Lane and Miranda Cantrell added six points each. 

UNF used a balanced scoring attack with six of the 13 players that saw action entering the scoring column on the stat sheet.  Jadhken Kerr led all scorers with 17 points.  Kerr knocked down 5-of-8 from behind the three-point arc. Taylor Smith turned in 11 points, while Brittany Kirkland finished with ten points.  Larikira Jones pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds.

Jax State will conclude its pre-Christmas schedule at home on Tuesday, Dec. 20 as it faces Ohio Valley Conference foe Eastern Kentucky.  Tip off is set for 7 p.m. and tickets are available for just $1 for the EKU and Georgia State match up on Dec. 28.  The Gamecocks and Lady Colonels will kick start the OVC schedule as it will be the first conference game of the season.