CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Nearly 260 days after collegiate athletics went on hold, the Jacksonville women's basketball team took to the court at the Watsco Center in Coral Gables to take on Miami to open the 2020-21 season. Despite a hard-fought first three quarters, the Hurricanes (1-0) used a big fourth quarter to down the Dolphins (0-1) 74-58.

"There were some bright spots out of our veterans and leaders today. We needed to take care of the ball today and I feel like we did a good job of that along with forcing turnovers," said head coach Darnell Haney. "We had some strong contributions from Alexis Pierce and DeShari Graham, along with a big game from Ashley Malone. This was her introduction to college basketball and now she knows what to expect and can build on today's performance moving on."
 
On playing today in the COVID-era, Haney said, "The whole process of going through all the pregame COVID protocols just showed the toughness of this team. Everything is a little different now but we've done a good job following out protocols so that we are able to come out and compete. Once the game got moving, we did a good job competing overall. We had a few lulls that we had to get through but once we got to playing JU basketball, we definitely saw some good things."
  
The first quarter saw both teams struggling to get anything going offensively, with the first points of the contest not coming until a Miami three-pointer at the 6:36 mark on the clock. JU got on the board shortly thereafter when newcomer DeShari Graham laid one in for the first points of her career to make it 3-2. Things picked up after the first media timeout of the day, as the closing four-plus minutes of the period saw both sides trading baskets, with Miami taking a 15-12 lead to the second.
 
Miami would hold onto the lead through the second quarter and would go into the half with a 32-26 edge. After Miami opened things up by as much as nine, the Dolphins were able to get within a pair with a little over minute remaining on a three from Alexis Pierce to make it 26-24 to cap a 7-0 run. The Hurricanes would score six of the final eight points of the half to push their lead back to six.
 
Pierce and Graham both had eight points and three rebounds in the first 20 minutes of action. Newcomer MaKayla Edwards, who was just recently declared eligible to play this season after transferring in from Hawai'i had four points, while ASUN Preseason All-Conference selection Jada Perry had two points, five boards and a block. JU shot just shy of 39% from the floor in the first half, with Pierce and Graham leading the way at 60% and 57% respectively.
 
Miami came out firing the start the third and would lead by as much as 15 in the period before the Dolphins were able to trim that back down to nine at 50-41 by quarter's end. Freshman Ashley Malone led JU in scoring in the period with five, while Pierce added another four.
 
In the fourth, JU would trim the lead down to seven on a layup by Graham to start the period but no less. Miami would tighten up on defense and post their best offensive quarter of the day on the strength of a 15-3 run and led by 23 twice before JU scored the final seven points to get to the final margin of 16. Kelsey Marshall scored 22 for Miami to lead all scorers while Destiny Harden and Brianna Jackson added 16 and 14 for the Hurricanes.
 
Alexis Pierce and DeShari Graham both posted 14-point efforts for the Dolphins, with the former collecting three rebounds and three assists and the latter pulling down eight boards. Jada Perry would finish with just five points but pulled down a team-best 10 rebounds while collecting four steals and three blocks.
 
Jacksonville struggled to find their stroke from long-range all afternoon, going just 3-24 from three-point land. The 'Phins also only made just six trips to the charity stripe, converting two of those opportunities. By comparison, Miami went 6-23 from downtown and was 24-29 from the free throw line in the contest.
 


Freshman Ashley Malone took home Player of the Game honors in her JU debut. The Pope John Paul II product out of Nashville led the Dolphins with 17 points, 10 coming in the fourth quarter, on 6-13 shooting.
 
The Dolphins will be back on the road Saturday as they head to Tampa to face American Conference Preseason number one USF. Looking to the weekend, Haney had this to say: "Moving ahead, we have another tough opponent in USF. We'll have to clean some things up, but I look forward to the opportunity that Saturday presents for us." Tip-off is scheduled for 4 P.M. from the Yuengling Center.