Tuesday, January 2, 2007
Contact: Stan Cole
JACKSONVILLE, FLA. - Campbell's front court of
Jonathan Rodriguez and Russ Gibson combined for 43 points and 24
rebounds and the Fighting Camels defeated North Florida 78-48
Tuesday at UNF Arena.
A freshman from Miami, Rodriguez had 24 points on 9-of-16 shots
from the floor and 5-of-6 free throws. Gibson, a senior forward
from Henderson, Ky., added 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting and a
career-best 10 boards. Campbell claimed a 47-28 edge on the glass
and held an 18-4 advantage in second-chance points.
Eric Smith scored all 13 of his points in the second half for the
Fighting Camels (6-5, 1-0 Atlantic Sun) and Ledell Eackles finished
with 11, plus five assists. The Fighting Camels won their A-Sun
opener for the second-straight year and claimed their third victory
in their last four contests.
The final score also represented Campbell's largest winning margin
on the road in 30 years of play at the Division I level. CU won at
Charleston Southern 86-58 on Feb. 22, 1992. The 30-point gap also
was CU's biggest ever against a league foe since the Camels joined
the Atlantic Sun Conference in 1994. Tuesday's result eclipsed a
60-41 triumph over Samford on Jan. 9, 1997 at Carter Gym.
Chris Timberlake topped North Florida (2-11, 0-3) with 14 points,
while Aaron Caruthers added 13. UNF shot just 32.7 percent from the
floor for the game.
In a game that matched the nation's fifth-highest scoring team
against the A-Sun's lowest-scoring squad, the Fighting Camels
pulled away from UNF over the last 19 minutes. The Camels didn't
reach their 86.9 scoring average, but collected their first victory
away from home (1-5) this year while winning their
second-consecutive contest.
Campbell shot 42.6 percent from the field (26-61), but made
19-of-24 from the stripe (.792). After hitting just 1-of-8 threes
in the opening half, the Camels knocked down 6-of-13 in the final
stanza, where they outscored the Ospreys 46-19.
Three-pointers from Ruell Pringle, Smith and Stephon Griffin keyed
a 13-2 Camel burst early in the second half. The Camels built their
first double-digit lead (45-35) on Gibson's tap-in with 15:39
remaining and stretched the rally to 29-4 on Smith's free throws
that gave CU a 63-37 edge.
Ian Gibson's lay-up in transition with 7:02 to play ended a 7:34
scoreless stretch for the Ospreys, who were out-scored 16-0 in the
span. Campbell led by as many as 32 late in the contest.
The Ospreys built a 23-17 lead on Germaine Sparkes' free throws
with 7:35 to go in the first half, but Rodriguez keyed a 15-2
Campbell run over the next 4:45 with nine points. UNF, which
entered the game as the lowest-scoring team in the Atlantic Sun
Conference (52.4), made just one field goal over the last 8:00 of
the opening stanza.
The Camels led 32-29 at the break as Rodriguez (13) and Gibson
(12) combined for all but seven of the team's first-half scoring.
UNF stayed close by hitting 4-of-10 triples in the first half
despite hitting just 9-of-27 shots overall and committing 11
turnovers.
The Fighting Camels entered the game ranked fifth nationally in
scoring offense (86.9), but had just 11 points in the first 10:04
of the game.
Campbell is 5-8 all-time in Atlantic Sun Conference openers. North
Florida entered the game averaging just 52.4 points per game and
shooting just 39 percent from the field, next to last in the
conference.
Campbell continues its two-game road trip Thursday in a 7:00 p.m.
start at Jacksonville University.
