After the Ospreys defeated the Dolphins at JU on Thursday evening, they turned around and beat them at UNF Arena Saturday evening completing the sweep in the season series.
Jacksonville set the tone early and got off to a great start on the road.
The Dolphins were playing physically down low, forced UNF to seven early turnovers, and were leading the game 22-15 with 7:39 remaining in the first half.
The Ospreys flipped the switch and that ended up being the Dolphin’s largest lead of the game. UNF connected on eight first-half threes, including a 20-6 run to close out the first half, leading JU 35-28 at halftime.
UNF came out in the second half and continued to fight their inner-city rival, with the largest crowd at UNF Arena since the 2016-2017 season.
UNF did lead by 11 points at one point, but JU would make a late rally in the game cutting Osprey’s lead to 49-47 with 9:04 remaining in the second half. When it looked like all the momentum had swung towards the visiting Dolphins, Jose Placer made the biggest shot of the evening connecting on a three to extend the Osprey’s lead to 52-47 with 9:02 remaining in the second half.
JU would continue to chip away but the dominance on the boards and the play of both Jose Placer and Carter Hendrickson helped UNF secure the home win.
The Ospreys maintained the lead for over 26 minutes in this game as they were playing extremely physical and efficient basketball.
UNF dominated the Dolphins on the glass outrebounding them 34-22 and 15-4 on the offensive boards.
UNF did a great job from behind the arc connecting on 13 threes and limiting the opposition to only two made three-pointers.
Jose Placer led the Ospreys with 21 points this evening and now has 51 points and 11 three-pointers made in the last two matchups combined.
Osprey’s guard Jose Placer was asked after the game how he was able to exploit the Dolphin’s defense and have a terrific scoring output. He stated:
“Within our system, I was getting open looks. They did a great job getting me open Jadyn and Jonathan were setting great screens, rolling, getting out of them, and being in the right positions”.
UNF will now look to make it three straight conference wins in a row Thursday at 7 PM, as they will host the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles.