Jacksonville women’s basketball rallies past UNF in River City Rumble

All it took was one pass. One layup.

Priscilla Williams fired a perfect pass inside to Aniah Smith at the start of the fourth quarter. A deficit transformed into a lead. In an instant, Jacksonville University women’s basketball coach Special Jennings sensed that something was about to change.

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“That was huge in a game like this,” Jennings said. “A rivalry game, it’s emotions, feelings and all those things. We knew we had to go on a run. I didn’t know when it was going to come, I just knew it needed to.”

One 14-0 run later, JU had claimed a River City Rumble victory, storming from behind to down the University of North Florida 58-52 on Feb. 14 at UNF Arena and keeping pace in the ASUN Conference race.

UNF had just grabbed the lead on a Karyzma Pierre free throw when Williams went to work, setting up Smith with a layup for a 44-43 Dolphin edge and her fifth assist of the game.

As it turned out, JU never trailed again.

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It’s the kind of basketball that JU has played during the season’s second half to claw back into the hunt for high seeding in the ASUN Tournament, a competition set for hometown hardwood at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena from March 3-9.

The Ospreys built an 11-point lead by the midpoint of the second quarter, courtesy of a 3-pointer drilled by Jamisyn Stinson. Then, the shooting that built the Ospreys’ lead turned ice cold, from 6-14 in the first half to 0-11 afterward, as UNF (8-17, 3-11) watched its losing skid extend to five games.

“I know we were executing our motion offense better early on, and we just went away from it,” UNF coach Erika Lambert said. “We were trying to play one-on-one against a team that really has that as a strength.”

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The Dolphins had too much speed in transition for the Ospreys, with 26 fast-break points to UNF’s 12. Too much rebounding, a battle JU won 46-31. And too much Williams.

The 6-4 graduate transfer guard from Houston, who set the Dolphins’ single-game scoring record with 44 points on Jan. 15 against Central Arkansas, took a while to find her shooting rhythm but ended with 13 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Forward Dezuray McGill scored 15 points to lead UNF and Soraya Ogaldez tallied 12 off the bench for UNF, currently 10th in the 12-team conference.

JU’s Smith came off the bench to lead all scorers with 16 and Tatum Brown added 11, as the Dolphins (18-7, 10-4 ASUN) extended their all-time lead in the series to 29-14.

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HOW FAR CAN JU ADVANCE?

The countdown is two weeks until the ASUN Tournament, just a short drive from the JU campus at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. In a tightly-packed conference where only a two-game margin separates third place from ninth, JU’s position is looking better than ever.

Their seven-game winning streak has boosted the Dolphins in their pursuit of conference leader Eastern Kentucky, which has nearly locked down the No. 1 seed with two weeks remaining.

The Dolphins’ only prior NCAA Tournament appearance came in 2015-16, when they went 22-11 under Yolett McPhee-McCuin.

Still on the JU schedule are four games, three at home at Swisher Gym: Feb. 19 against Queens, Feb. 21 against Florida Gulf Coast, Feb. 25 at Stetson and the return Rumble at home on Feb. 27 against UNF.

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“When we’re characteristic of ourselves,” Jennings said, “we’re a really good team.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville University-North Florida women’s college basketball score