UNF Shoots Down Liberty

The fans at UNF Arena stormed the court after a huge win over a conference opponent Tuesday evening.

While the first half was tightly contested, it was all about Liberty’s Darius McGhee who was on fire in the first half. McGhee had 19 points and had hit five threes, as the Flames led the Ospreys 38-33 going into halftime.

The second half was all about adjustments and momentum for the Ospreys as they were able to take over this game. UNF switched to a 3-2 zone and it worked effectively as they held the Flames to just 19 points in the last 16 minutes of the second half. UNF had gone on a 27-13 run over an 11 minute stretch to take the lead and were able to keep that energy level with the help of the crowd.

Darius McGhee cooled off a bit in the second half as he only scored nine points, shot 2-7 from the field, and was 2-4 from deep. For the Ospreys, it was two huge performances from Jarius Hicklen and Jordan Prester. Jarius tied a career-high 31 points and hit a new career-high eight threes. Jordan had a season-high with his number being called upon with 16 points, five threes, and had a team-high +12.

UNF finished the game shooting 47% from the field and were blistering hot connecting on 14 of 31 threes.

We asked Jarius Hicklen postgame on preparing for the matchup with FGCU’s guard Tavian Dunn Martin. Jarius had this to say:

“Same thing. Whatever the coaching staff schemes up just like they did this game. I think we will follow the game plan and do the exact same thing.”

On a night where UNF was missing their top two players in Jose Placer and Carter Hendricksen, they found a way to come out on the winning end vs. Liberty.

It was an electric atmosphere at UNF Arena as the Ospreys have now won five out of their last six games. Liberty, meanwhile, drops their second game in a row and have now lost two straight ASUN Conference games for the first time this season.

The Ospreys will prepare for FGCU as they come to Jacksonville for UNF’s homecoming game on 2/19 at 5:00 PM EST.

(Featured image via OspreyMBB/Twitter)

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