JACKSONVILLE – Despite 30 points from Kori Babineaux, the men's basketball team of Jacksonville University dropped its first Atlantic Sun game of the season, losing the first round of the River City Rumble 83-68 to North Florida.

"We executed our defense and forced UNF to rely on its bench for scoring, which is what we wanted to do," said Head Coach Tony Jasick. "Give credit to UNF. Their role players responded in a big way."

The Dolphins (8-10, 0-1) came out of the halftime locker room on fire, putting together a 10-0 run that featured four layups by Babineaux and a deep three by Darius Dawkins. With 15:26 left in the game, Babineaux cut the lead to just one point, 38-37. But the Ospreys (13-6, 2-0) responded with a 10-2 run, putting the lead at 49-39 with 11 minutes left. The UNF lead ballooned to 18 with 4:49 remaining, thanks in large part to a 50 percent shooting effort by the Ospreys in the second half. JU fought back within 12, but couldn't get back within single digits the rest of the game.

Babineaux had 30 points on 13-29 shooting, also collecting seven rebounds. Dawkins had 17 points, hitting 4-9 from deep, and Marcel White had 15 points on 6-10 shooting. The Dolphins had 38 points in the paint, shot 39.4 percent from the floor, and made four of their 21 three-point attempts. Jacksonville's only points off the bench came from Antwon Clayton and Josh Adeyeye with a point apiece.

"Kori gets the ball in the paint, and that gets the team going," said Jasick. "He's playing at a really high level, and when the team is struggling we can run the offense through him."

The Dolphins won the opening tip, but hit only one of their first 11 shots. At the first media timeout, JU trailed UNF 10-3. The Ospreys put together an 8-6 run over the next five minutes, leading 18-9 about halfway through the first period. Babineaux found his stroke after the second media stoppage, scoring the next six points for JU and fueling a 6-2 run. The Dolphins' defense put together a sterling stretch from 9:18 to 5:00, not allowing a single point to the Ospreys over the four-minute stretch. The half closed with Babineaux scoring the Dolphins' final nine points, and at the half UNF led 33-22.

Up next for Jacksonville is a home game against Kennesaw State on Thursday, followed by a home game against Lipscomb next Saturday.

Tip-Ins 

Babineaux's 30 points were one off a career-best, set earlier this year against Florida State.

Jacksonville won the battle in the paint, 38-36.

Jacksonville connected on just four of its 21 shots from beyond the arc, hitting 19 percent of its shots.

Fans can follow all the action from the 2015-16 season at JUDolphins.com and through Twitter @JacksonvilleMBB.