Jacksonville, Fla. ? The Stetson women's basketball team (2-11, 0-1 A-Sun) attempted a valiant comeback Saturday afternoon at North Florida but could not manage to offset a nightmarish first half in which it scored just nine points, dropping its Atlantic Sun opener 44-36. Senior guard Jamie Nesbit (Peoria, Ariz.) led the Hatters with a season-high 13 points.
Down 27-9 at halftime after making just three of 18 field goal attempts and turning the ball over 17 times in the first half, the Hatters fell behind by 20 until Nesbit hit back-to-back three-pointers to bring Stetson within 33-19 five minutes into the second half.
The deficit hovered at 14 points for the next five minutes until another Nesbit trifecta brought Stetson within 10, 37-27, with just over eight minutes to play. With 4:44 remaining, freshman guard Tierra Brown made two free throws to cut the lead to 40-31, bringing the Hatters within single digits for the first time since the 7:11 mark of the first half. However, the Lady Ospreys would keep the Hatters at arm's length from there to improve their record to 6-7, 1-0 in A-Sun play.
Nesbit scored all of her points in the second half to fuel the effort at a rally. Junior center Ayesha Barkley (East Orange, N.J.) scored eight points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. Juliemay Syquio led UNF with 14 points and Jennifer Guldager contributed seven points and nine rebounds.
Neither team made a field goal for nearly the first four minutes until UNF's Antoinette Reames tied the game 3-3 with a jumper in the paint. Stetson, which missed its first eight shots from the floor, went without a field goal until 12:47 remained in the first half.
The next several minutes were marked by numerous turnovers by each team; North Florida managed a pair of baskets in transition to take a 14-7 lead into the under-eight-minutes media timeout. Juliemay Syquio scored the next five points for UNF to jumpstart a 14-2 run that put the game out of reach. The Lady Ospreys showcased a swarming defense that forced Stetson into 17 turnovers in the first half. UNF led 27-9 at the half.
Syquio outscored the Hatters in the first half by herself, scoring 11 points with the help of a pair of three-pointers. Junior center Ayesha Barkley (East Orange, N.J.) had three of Stetson's nine first-half points.
Stetson returns to action Monday at 7 p.m. at Jacksonville University. The game will be played on the JU campus at Swisher Gymnasium.
