FLORENCE, Ala. – The Jacksonville University men's basketball team (9-7, 3-3 ASUN) suffered its first sweep of this new ASUN scheduling format when it fell to North Alabama (9-3, 5-1 ASUN) on Saturday night, 76-54.

Dontarius James scored a game-high 19 points on 4-11 shooting and 2-7 from deep to go with 9-11 from the free throw line. He added three rebounds and an assist. Tyreese Davis added 10 points and four boards while Bryce Workman pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. Loseni Kamara scored five and had five boards off the bench. Connor Thompson snuck in at the end of the game and contributed five points on 2-2 shooting including his first triple as a Dolphin.

Jacksonville paced with North Alabama in the early going on Saturday night in Florence, leading 5-3 with 15:30 to in the first half. UNA tied the score on the next possession and in doing so began what turned into 17-4 run that put the Dolphins in a 22-9 hole by the 9:48 mark. The Lions stayed hot from the floor while the bucket seemed to get smaller for the shorthanded Dolphins. By the end of the first half, UNA held a 40-18 lead.

Jacksonville trailed by as many as 28 points in the second half but James asserted himself in a way that UNA was able to take away on Friday night; from deep. He knocked down back-to-back triples early in the second half to get rolling and from there he found the confidence to drive hard and draw fouls. By the 7:15 mark in the second half, James had collected 19 points and was 9-11 from the free throw line.

The Dolphins were shooting 50.0 percent from the floor and had scored 31 more points at that stage of the second half but still trailed by 20 as North Alabama maintained its pace. The Lions matched JU nearly basket-for-basket disallowing the visiting side to chip away by much. The benches emptied shortly thereafter as UNA was able to salt away the rest of this one.

Flowers Hall continues to be a thorn in the side of the Jacksonville program as the Lions move to 4-0 all-time in their home venue opposite JU and 5-1 overall. Jacksonville will next take floor on Friday (Jan. 29) opposite Liberty (12-5, 4-2 ASUN) inside Swisher Gym at 7 p.m. The second matchup will take place the following day (Jan. 30) at 6 p.m. The Dolphins will be in search of their first win opposite the Flames (0-5).