The University of North Florida’s conference basketball season ended the same way it began — with a loss to Austin Peay after holding a double-digit lead.
Senior forward Liam Murphy and sophomore guards Jaylen Smith and Jasai Miles helped shoot the Ospreys into a 31-13 lead with 8:08 left in the first half at the CB&S Bank Arena in Florence, Ala., on Sunday but Austin Peay’s trio of guards Issac Haney and LJ Thomas and forward Darius Dawson scored 20 points each and the Governors staged a 39-point turnaround in winning 90-69 in an opening-round ASUN tournament game, ending UNF’s season with a fifth consecutive ouster in the either the first round or the quarterfinals.
Seventh-seeded North Florida (15-17) lost its third conference game after holding a double-digit lead. The Ospreys fell to No. 8 Austin Peay 97-89 on Jan. 2 after leading by 16 points with 2:49 left in the first half and two weeks ago lost to Central Arkansas 84-83 in overtime after leading by 17 points with 14:13 left in the game.
UNF also won three games in which they led Stetson by 13 points with 5:05 left and had to go to overtime to win 101-100; led Jacksonville by 25 points with 5:53 left in the first half, with the Dolphins having a chance to tie on the final possession in an 81-78 victory; and then led Stetson by 18 points with 16:46 left in the game, only to have the Hatters cut the margin to six points with 3:13 left before UNF won 79-71.
The season didn’t meet expectations after UNF beat South Carolina and Georgia Tech in getting off to a 3-0 start, earning votes in the AP basketball poll for the first time in history. The Ospreys went 4-6 during the rest of their non-conference schedule, began the ASUN season with a three-game losing streak and failed to sustain momentum after sweeping JU in their series.
ASUN quarterfinal matchups set
Austin Peay (14-18) will play No. 2-seeded North Alabama (22-9) on Monday at 7 p.m. In another opening-round game on Sunday, No. 10 Central Arkansas defeated No. 9 Stetson 77-72 in Nashville and will play No. 1 seed Lipscomb (22-9) on Monday at 8 p.m. in Allen Arena.
The other quarterfinal games will have No. 4 Jacksonville University (18-12) facing No. 5 Eastern Kentucky (18-13) at 7 p.m. at Swisher Gym; and No. 3 Florida Gulf Coast (18-13) hosting No. 6 Queens (18-13) at 7 p.m.
All tournament games will be streamed on ESPN+ until the championship game on March 9 at 2 p.m., which will be on ESPN2.
Liam Murphy was deadly early in the game
Murphy scored 14 of his team-high 16 points in the first half and hit 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give the Ospreys their 18-point lead. The Governors cut the score to seven points but Murphy hit from beyond the arc again and Miles made a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer to increase UNF’s lead to 45-32 with 48 seconds left.
Austin Peay then got a surge of momentum going into the locker room, courtesy of Haney. He hit a 3-pointer with 33.9 seconds left in the half and after Kamrin Oriol missed a 3-point attempt, Anton Brookshire gathered the rebound and passed the ball to Haney, who hit a 3-pointer from beyond the logo at the buzzer to cut the lead to 45-38.
Ospreys go cold in second half
UNF seemed to come out under control in the second half and led 58-50 with 15:51 left on a layup by Josh Harris. But Austin Peay went on a 17-2 run, highlighted by six points on inside shots by Thomas and two 3-point shots by freshman Tate McCubbin to give the Governors a 67-60 lead with 11:46 left.
The closest the Ospreys came after that was a six-point deficit and Thomas and Dawson combined to score 10 points during one stretch to put the game out of reach.
Austin Peay shot 71 percent in the second half, with Dawson making 9 of 9 and Haney 8 of 11 for the game. UNF made only 10 of 28 shots from the floor (35.7 percent) in the second half and 4 of 16 from beyond the 3-point arc (25.0) and didn’t score over the final 5:47 of the game as APU closed on a 14-0 run.
The Governors outscored UNF 60-30 in the paint.
Murphy led UNF with 16 points but had only one 2-point basket after halftime. Miles had 15 points and eight rebounds, Harris had 12 points on 5 of 6 shooting, and eight rebounds and Smith scored 14 points and made four steals.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: UNF Ospreys season ends with 90-69 loss to Austin Peay in ASUN tournament
