Jacksonville, Fla. ? The month of February has not been kind to the Stetson women's basketball team (8-20, 5-14 Atlantic Sun), but Saturday's game at North Florida may have been the unkindest cut of all. The Hatters erased a 14-point second half deficit and had a late lead get away from them in a 60-56 overtime loss. UNF improved to 7-20 and 6-12 in A-Sun action. Senior center Ayesha Barkley (East Orange, N.J.) had 15 points and tied her season high with eight rebounds before fouling out in overtime. Stetson has now lost six in a row and 11 of its last 12 contetsts.
In the extra session, the two teams went the first two and a half minutes without scoring a single point between them. Eventually, UNF's Jennifer Bowen made two free throws to give the Lady Ospreys a lead they would not relinquish. Down by three in the final seconds, Stetson sophomore guard Tierra Brown (Orlando, Fla.) had a good look at a three-pointer to tie but could not get it to go down.
Stetson suffered only its third loss in its last 10 overtime games and went an extra five minutes for the first time since a 71-68 win at Gardner-Webb Jan. 28, 2008. The Hatters had won six consecutive overtime games on the road in A-Sun play and had not lost in such a scenario since January 14, 1993 at the College of Charleston. Stetson fell to 0-4 all-time at UNF Arena and was swept in the season series by the Lady Ospreys for the first time in the four years UNF has been in the A-Sun.
Brown scored 12 points and junior forward Ashli Jackson (Opelika, Ala.) added 11 points and seven rebounds for the Hatters, who were playing without the services of third-leading scorer and leading rebounder Jessica Conner (Cocoa, Fla.), out today with flu-like symptoms and a fever. Senior guard Sharnesha Smith (Kingsland, Ga.) tallied eight points, five assists and four rebounds, reaching 400 career assists in the process. Only three other players in school history have recorded 400 assists and just two others besides Smith have done it while also scoring 1,000 career points.
Cherizol paced UNF with a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double; Juliemay Syquio scored 13 points and Brittany Kirkland scored 12 for the Lady Ospreys.
Down 30-21 at halftime, the Hatters fell behind by 14 points before going on a 21-6 run, keyed by a trio of three-pointers, to go ahead 46-45 with five and a half minutes to play. Freshman guard Kelly Ellison (Columbus, Ga.) found senior center Ayesha Barkley (East Orange, N.J.) under the basket for a layup to take the lead. Stetson bumped its lead to three (making the streak 23-6 in total) before UNF came back to tie on a Jennifer Guldager free throw with 1:40 left.
The two teams exchanged baskets and then Arlande Cherizol rebounded a Sharnesha Smith (Kingsland, Ga.) miss with 12.7 seconds left; she was fouled and hit both ends of a one and one to give UNF a 52-50 lead. It was also Cherizol that made the tying basket on the previous trip down the floor. Smith missed from 15 feet with 2.3 seconds left but was fouled by UNF's Brittany Kirkland in the act. Smith stepped to the line and calmly canned them both in the face of a raucous Osprey home crowd to force overtime.
Juliemay Syquio's inbounds pass was tipped by Barkley into the hands of Brown, who got off a heave at the buzzer from 28 feet that went wide of the mark.
Both teams found offense hard to come by in the early going; Stetson got the worst of it when it went more than seven minutes without a field goal early in the first half. The Hatters were down by as many as 13 points before a 10-3 burst over a 3:45 span allowed them to close within 27-21 with two minutes left in the half. UNF re-upped the lead to nine points at the break. Stetson made just one field goal in the final 5:35 of the first half.
Brown scored 10 points to lead the Hatters in the first half, including one bizarre basket after she drove the lane and the ball was stripped out of her hands. The basketball appeared to carom off her knee and shoot directly up over the rim and through the hoop, drawing a gasp from the UNF Arena crowd.
The Hatters conclude the regular season at 1 p.m. next Saturday in Buies Creek, N.C. against Campbell. A-Sun.TV will webcast the contest. Seeding for the conference tournament March 4-7 at Lipscomb's Allen Arena is still up in the air from Stetson's perspective; the Hatters could land anywhere from the #5 to the #7 seed. A victory over the Camels would ensure Stetson the fifth seed.
