With any luck the University of North Florida men's basketball team will avoid having to play East Tennessee State in next week's Atlantic Sun Conference tournament.

It's hard to imagine a worse matchup for the Ospreys.

The visiting Buccaneers led by at least nine points throughout the second half en route to a 61-46 win over UNF on Thursday night. In two meetings this season, ETSU has outscored UNF 143-102.

The Bucs (16-14, 12-7) are fifth in the conference standings, while UNF (13-16, 8-11) is seventh. That should push the two squads to opposite ends of the eight-team tournament bracket next week in Macon, Ga.

UNF never got in rhythm offensively, shooting 30 percent from the floor. The 3-point line was a major sore spot for the Ospreys, who missed their first 16 attempts and finished 2 of 21.

"We did a great job defending and outrebounded them by 10," UNF coach Matthew Driscoll said. "But, we still lost by 15 because we couldn't put the ball in the basket."

The Ospreys' postcard printing lackluster offensive output led to a 30-19 deficit at halftime. UNF shot 29 percent from the field (7 of 24) and missed all eight of its 3-point attempts.

Included in the 17 misses was an errant dunk attempt by wide- open freshman forward Andy Diaz.

Diaz was pulled after the next trip down the court and Driscoll ordered him to do several pushups to the side of the UNF bench.

"He said an inappropriate thing on the floor," Driscoll said. "Maybe I should've made him do 20 pushups for missing the dunk."

Diaz was the lone bright spot for UNF, scoring 15 points and hauling down 11 rebounds. The double-double was Diaz's third in four games.

"Any time you get a double-double at any level it's a great accomplishment," Driscoll said. "I'm harder on Andy than anybody. His talent level is unbelievable and his roof is extremely high as a player."

UNF trimmed the lead to 50-41 with 6:46 to play after Diaz converted a three-point play after being fouled.

Easst Tennessee quickly put the game away, responding with a 10- 0 run.

UNF will be back at home to wrap up the regular season on Saturday when it takes on Campbell. The game starts at 7 p.m. and will be senior night for the Ospreys.

One senior playing his final game at UNF will be guard Germaine Sparkes. The Hinesville, Ga., native tied the school record for most career games played with 116 against East Tennessee State.

He can break Chris Timberlake's record, set from 2004-08, against Campbell.

"We're still a confident team," Diaz said. "We'll get back to work tomorrow. We can't improve our seeding in the tournament, but with a win Saturday we can build some momentum going into it.", (904) 359-4377

replica bag wholesale
Other articles:
http://www.lehubaby.cn//Blog/View/?582
http://watches2010.namjai.cc/e20797.html
http://www.propertybloger.com/blog.php?user=mywatches¬e=636