Wednesday, February 09, 2011

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Russell Powell’s running floater with 4.7 seconds left lifted the JU men’s basketball team to a 71-69 over North Florida in the SunTrust River City Rumble in front of a crowd of 4,248 at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena on Tuesday night.

With the game tied and 11 seconds left in regulation, Powell, who was 0-for-6 for the game up to that point, drove straight to the basket and his running toss lofted over the UNF defender – falling through the hoop to give its final lead.

“Russell did a great job of attacking the basket on the final play,” said JU head coach Cliff Warren. “We wanted to get a shot early enough to give us a chance at a putback.”

Ayron Hardy, Delwan Graham and Keith McDougald all scored in double figures for JU (16-7, 10-4 A-Sun) as the Dolphins won their 11th straight over the Ospreys. Hardy had a team-high 15 points while McDougald added 14 off the bench. Graham picked up his third double-double of the season with 14 points, a season-high 15 recounds, three assists and five blocks.

The Ospreys got the ball up the floor for a final shot, but Brad Haugabrook’s 3-pointer to win the game clanged off the back of the iron.

Andres Diaz led four Ospreys (9-16, 6-8 A-Sun) with a game-high 20 points and seven rebounds before fouling out. Jerron Granberry had 18 points thanks to four 3-pointers. Jimmy Williams added 12 points while Haugabrook scored 10.

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