FLORENCE, Ala. – The Jacksonville Dolphins' season has come to a close, as JU fell to North Alabama 78-63 in the ASUN Semifinals.

The #4 Dolphins finished with a 19-13 record overall and a 12-6 record in regular season conference play.

Jacksonville scored the first bucket of the third game between the two schools on a finish from Kendall Munson but was unable to recapture that lead for the rest of the game.

In the final game of his junior season, Robert McCray V finished with a team-high and tied for game-high 19 points.

The Preseason ASUN Player Of The Year, and All-ASUN First Team honoree, grabbed a team best six rebounds and dished out a team best five assists. 

Graduate guard Jakari Spence kept the pace with McCray, tallying 14 points in his final college game. Spence went 5-8 and hit a season-best two 3-pointers. At the halftime buzzer, Spence launched a triple to send JU into the locker room with some momentum, but a deficit of 35-23.

Fellow graduating player senior Kendall Munson scored eight points and snatched three boards. Senior Zimi Nwokeji nailed a triple and grabbed a pair of rebounds.

Freshman Chris Arias lit up the game from beyond the arc, hitting three triples and finishing with 12 points. 

Under the basket, Donovan Rivers swatted away a game-high three balls.

By game's end, JU lost the rebounding battle 36-32. Forward Stephon Payne III played 19 minutes in his second game back from injury and snagged four rebounds. Guard Zach Bell also grabbed four while dishing out four assists. 

Thursday's game in totality was a game of runs, with each team throwing punches without the other answering right away.

After Munson's game opening basket, UNA went on an 11-0 run to go into the first media timeout. JU answered with a 9-0 run of its own to force a Lions' timeout.

Out of halftime, JU pushed the game to 39-30 behind a couple makes from McCray.

At the 12-minute mark, the game was within 10 points as UNA led 50-40. At the under eight-minute timeout, the game was almost dead even as JU crawled back to push things to 55-52.

JU got the game to 57-54 before UNA pulled away for good.

What was once an 18-point lead by the home team was gashed into just a three-point lead at two separate stoppages, but the Dolphins could not close the gap.

As McCray is one to do, he turned it on in when the lights were brightest. Of his 19 points, 17 were scored in the second half. He finished his junior year — his second with the Dolphins — with 1,104 points scored in a JU uniform.

That number places him 25^th all-time in scoring at Jacksonville.

In head coach Jordan Mincy's four years at the helm of Jacksonville, he has won three opening round playoff games in three tries, reaching the semis in all three attempts.