Contact: Stan Cole

North Florida Defeats Campbell 95-84 In Atlantic Sun Basketball

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. – Alain Laroche scored 23 points and North Florida ended a 10-game losing streak Thursday with a 95-84 win over Campbell at UNF Arena.

Freshman Ryan Daugherty added 18 points and eight rebounds for the Ospreys, who earned their first-ever A-Sun league win. Rashad Williams had 17 points and Chris Timberlake 12 for UNF (4-12, 1-8).

Eric Smith led Campbell (5-11, 4-5) with 19 points, including 5-of-9 threes, while Maurice Latham and Reggie Bishop had 15 each. Comerlee Poole and Ruell Pringle scored 11 each for Campbell, which dropped its second-straight.

Smith had his highest scoring output since a 20-point effort Dec. 21 at Indiana State, but did not make a shot in the second half until his 3 with 1:27 to go sliced the lead to 87-79.

UNF led by 12 at the half, then shot 62 percent (13-21) from the floor after the break. Campbell twice cut the gap to as little as five in the final period, but UNF made 18-24 foul shots in the stanza, 24-of-34 on the game.

Campbell shot just 50 percent (14-of-28) from the line and made a season-low six 3-point baskets. CU entered the game ranked fifth nationally in threes made per game (9.9), but hit just 2-of-12 in the second period.

Laroche keyed a 12-3 UNF run midway through the first half with a pair of threes and the Ospreys led by as many as 14 before taking a 48-36 edge into the dressing room. Smith kept the Camels close, hitting 4-of-5 threes and scoring 16 before the break.

Williams had 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting and Laroche 10 in the opening half for UNF, which shot 56 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes.

The Camels pulled with 60-55 with 12:28 left on Ruell Pringle's bucket, but UNF got a pair of threes from Riley Didion and another from Daugherty to push the added back to double digits.

UNF made 9-of-18 from long distance and finished the night shooting 58.5 percent (31-53) from the field overall. Campbell made 46.4 percent (32-69) of its shots, 6-of-19 (.316) from 3-point territory, and held a 38-34 advantage on the glass.

Campbell continues its two-game swing Saturday in a 3:00 p.m. tip-off at Jacksonville (1-15, 1-8), which lost to Gardner-Webb 72-67 Thursday night. [ Box Score ]