Jacksonville, Fla. ? The Stetson women's basketball team (2-12, 0-2 Atlantic Sun) hung with host Jacksonville (12-3, 2-0 A-Sun) as long as it could but ultimately the hot-shooting Dolphins pulled away for the 77-60 victory. Senior guard Jamie Nesbit (Peoria, Ariz.) set a season scoring high for the second consecutive game, finishing with 17 points.
Down 11 points at halftime, the Hatters hung with the preseason Atlantic Sun conference favorites, trading baskets with Jacksonville for the first five minutes of the second period. However, Stetson could not take proper care of the basketball, turning the ball over several times when it had a chance to cut the deficit to two possessions.
Stetson would get as close as seven points with just over nine minutes to go on a Tierra Brown (Orlando, Fla.) layup, but JU's Crystal Grable provided a spark off the bench with five straight points to extend the lead to 62-50 at the under-eight minute media timeout. Virginia Gregoire drained a three-pointer coming out of that stoppage to make it a 15-point game and the Hatters never seriously threatened again. The victory for Jacksonville was its sixth straight overall and 17th in a row at home. JU possesses the nation's third-longest home-court winning streak.
The Hatters shot 44.1 percent from the field (26-59), their most effective shooting game of the season. Freshman center Jessica Conner (Cocoa, Fla.) scored 10 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked three shots while junior guard Sharnesha Smith (Kingsland, Ga.) came up with nine points and six rebounds. Brown also tallied nine points for the Hatters. Junior center Ayesha Barkley (East Orange, N.J.) blocked two shots to move within one of ninth place on the Stetson career rejections list.
Ashley Williams, the pre-season pick for A-Sun MVP and the league's leading scorer, torched Stetson with 25 points and eight rebounds while Virginia Gregoire put up a double-double (17 points, 15 rebounds). Regina Omoite and Danielle Gray also scored in double figures with 11 and 10 points, respectively. DaVina Hamilton dished out eight assists while Omoite had six. Jacksonville dominated the rebounding battle 45-28.
Stetson fell behind 7-0 at the outset due to some hot JU shooting but got back within four points (13-9) by the first media timeout. Williams responded for Jacksonville with six consecutive points to kick-start an 8-2 Dolphin run that put the home team ahead by 10 with 12 minutes left in the first half.
The two teams traded baskets for the next seven minutes until Stetson got back within single digits with 5:05 to go in the half on a Nesbit three-pointer, her second of the ballgame. The Hatters would get as close as five points (32-27), but the Dolphins pulled away again to take a 43-32 lead into the locker room. Williams was an unstoppable force for Jacksonville in the first half, converting all five of her field goal attempts and sinking five of six free throws to lead all scorers with 15 points at the break.
Nesbit tied her season game high in the first half alone, scoring 13 points on five of seven shooting, including three of four from three-point land. Conner blocked three shots in the first 20 minutes to key Stetson's defense. Gray added 10 points for the Dolphins while Gregoire had six points and nine rebounds.
The Hatters play their third straight road game Saturday at 7 p.m. when they tip it off with conference foe Florida Gulf Coast at Alico Arena in Fort Myers, Fla. Stetson will be the visiting team in the first A-Sun home game in FGCU history.
