Sweep at The Nest: Jose Placer, Carter Hendricksen deliver clutch shots for UNF to beat JU

Jose Placer provided a re-run of sorts in the River City Rumble.

The University of North Florida junior guard once again delivered clutch shots to help the Ospreys to pull away from a tight game against Jacksonville University, scoring 12 of UNF’s last 16 points in Saturday’s 65-58 victory in front of 4,439, the largest crowd at UNF Arena since the 2016 ASUN Tournament Championship game.

UNF (10-14, 5-7) swept the River City Rumble for the first time since 2020 and won back-to-back conference games for the first time this season. JU (12-11, 5-7) has lost three of its last four games and dropped a conference Saturday game for the first time this season.

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The Dolphins trailed 35-28 at halftime after the Ospreys went on a 20-6 run to close the first half. Five players scored during that stretch with Chaz Lanier pumping in in two 3-point shots and Placer and Carter Hendricksen adding one each.

But when JU went on a 13-4 run early in the second half, with Bishop Snyder graduate Gyasi Powell scoring seven points, it sliced UNF’s lead to 49-47 with 10:01 left.

Enter Placer, who had 30 points in Thursday’s 76-63 victory at Swisher Gym. He hit back-to-back threes in that game to pull UNF from a 53-49 lead.

On Saturday, he knocked down a three-pointer, hit a running one-hander in the lane from 8 feet, then answered baskets by JU’s Mike Marsh (14 points) and Kevion Nolan (seven points, five assists) by assisting on Hendricksen’s catch-and-shoot baseline three, which Hendricksen fired over Nolan, who came flying in from the right.

Seconds later, Placer stole the ball in the backcourt and went in for the layup to cap a 10-4 run and give the Ospreys a 59-51 lead with 5:43 left.

JU cut the lead to four points with 44 seconds left on Jordan Davis’ layup but Hendricksen and Placer went to the line to make three of four free throws with less than 30 seconds left.

“We’ve had leads, big leads against good teams,” UNF coach Matthew Driscoll said. “And we’ve let those go away and then we weren’t able to come back. In this case, in both games we had leads, they punched us and we didn’t stay on the mat. We got up off the mat and I’m really excited about that aspect.”

Placer finished with 21 points and five assists, Hendricksen had 16 points and three assists and Oscar Berry had 11 points and made three of six three-point shots in the first half.

JU Osayi Osifo led the Dolphins with 15 points and six rebounds. He and Marsh combined to hit 12 of 17 shots but JU made only two of eight from beyond the arc, while UNF hit 13 of 34.

Placer, one point away from scoring 1,000 for his UNF career, said it wasn’t his intention to take over either game.

“We’re calling our plays and that’s what presented itself,” he said.

Hendricksen played in his 10^th River City Rumble game and barring a meeting in the ASUN tournament, he will go out with a sweep. UNF was 7-3 against JU when he was in the lineup and he averaged 13.2 points per game.

“It’s always great to get the cross-town school,” he said. “The atmosphere was awesome tonight. It was really cool to get it done.”

UNF got the better of JU in two key areas on Saturday. They out-rebounded the Dolphins 34-22 (with a 15-4 edge on the offensive glass, scoring 17 second-chance points to JU’s four) and outscored JU 21-9 off turnovers.

It was the fewest rebounds the Dolphins have gathered in one game in two seasons under coach Jordan Mincy. The previous low was 25 against Duke in the opening game of the season.

JU out-rebounded UNF by a margin of 32 (116-84) in the three previous meetings, including a 38-31 edge on Thursday.

Hendricksen had the answer: junior forward Dorian James, who came off the bench for four of his seven rebounds in the first half, and had four on offensive glass.

James' first offensive rebound gave the Ospreys a fresh shot clock and Jarius Hicklen hit a three-pointer to erase a 10-8 JU lead. James later rebounded a missed free throw by Osayi Osifo and Berry followed with a three-pointer.

"Dorian James happened," Hendricksen said. "He came in there and just flipped everything. He just flipped the script and set the tone for us ... we can go get the ball and bring the physicality to them."

Winning the rebounding and turnover battle is a formula Mincy has relied on in his two seasons at JU and he was not happy to get beaten at his own game.

“We never get out-rebounded like this,” Mincy said of his team, which is third in the ASUN in rebounding margin at plus-3.7. “Unbelievable job [by UNF] … all congrats to them. We pride ourselves on a certain level of toughness … being able to rebound at an extremely high level. We don’t have our identity. We’re not who we are right now.”

It's also about where JU is right now: tied for ninth in the ASUN with UNF, which means both are on the bubble for the final spot in the tournament.

The good news is that both of them play four of their last six games at home, swapping out games this week with Florida Gulf Coast and Stetson. The Dolphins play Stetson on Thursday at 7 p.m. and FGCU on Saturday at 4, while the Ospreys face FGCU on Thursday at 7 p.m. and Stetson on Saturday at 2 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jose Placer, Carter Hendricksen tough down the stretch as UNF sweeps JU